Eric Berry is Back!

Jul 29, 2015; St. Joseph, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs strong safety Eric Berry (29) runs drills during the first day of training camp at Missouri Western State University. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

After being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma last December Kansas City Chiefs defensive back Eric Berry was on the practice field for the training camp! As an Oakland Raiders fan, I can’t stand the Kansas City Chiefs but I have to recognize a real man when I see one. That was one rocky roller-coaster he’s been on since December and he spoke about it to the NFL media.

He said, “It was a tough process but like I said I had a great support system between my mom and dad being in the trenches with me every day, day in and day out and just making sure I had everything that I needed from an emotional standpoint, a physical standpoint, everything.

“It was tough. It was a battle every day. I had to, it was to the point where I had to set goals to where I would just get out the bed,” he said. “You know, today I’ll get out the bed, I’m not gonna stay in the bed all day because I would literally stay in the bed all day.

“To be honest with you, I was training while I was going through chemo,” he said. “There would be times I would work out and I’d end up just crying after the workout just because, first of all, I couldn’t believe that I made it through the workout, but I couldn’t believe it was that hard.

“I was trying to push myself to the limit, I couldn’t push myself how I wanted to and it was just … I had to break it down to really embracing the process and understand that everything wasn’t going to come back overnight. You add chemo into something like this, that’s a whole different monster because it literally feels like you’re dying.”

At a time where the media is caught up in suspensions from domestic abuse, child abuse and just plain cheating, Berry should be front and center. He snatched life from the jaws of death and actually made it back unto the field in the process. There is no one in the NFL that deserves more respect than Berry does right now.