Great Story

While I was flipping through the channels the other day, I came across the College
Football Awards show. This is where all of the big awards in College Football (besides the Heisman) are given out to the best football players in the nation. Some of these awards and their winner's this year consist of the Maxwell award (Colt McCoy), the Doak Walker award (Toby Gerhart), and the award that was in my opinion, the most impressive. The award is called the Disney Spirit award and it's previous winner was Tim Tebow, and I'm thinking that who could possibly top this guy, one of the most decorated college football players ever.

Well as Tim Tebow and the Disney Marketing president present the award to this years winner, Mark Herzlich, I'm thinking who is this guy. It turns out that Mark played and will play football at Boston College University. After his Junior year at Boston College, Mark was thought to be one of the top linebackers in the country and was projected to be a high first round pick if he entered the NFL draft. Mark declined this option and decided to stick it out and play his Senior year in college.

Early this spring, Mark began to have pain in his leg and decided to have a doctor check it out. The doctor took a biopsy and they found out that Mark had Edwing's Sarcoma, which is a rare bone cancer. As I watched this man, tell millions of people on TV his story/battle through this cancer, it made me realize why he was receiving the Disney Spirit award. About two hours after he had been told he had cancer, Mark said to himself and his family basically, that he will beat this cancer and play football again.

During this fall, while Mark was on College Gameday with Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, Mark announced that he had beat the cancer and that he planned to be on the field for BC next season. I have never heard a crowd erupt on College Gameday like they did after that announcement. Mark talked for a while about his fight and all the people that reached out to him: Lance Armstrong and Jon Lester for example. He said that it changed his outlook on life and football. Mark started to put things in perspective and began to appreciate everything he was blessed with and cherish every day in life because you never know if it will be your last. That kind of made me take a step back and think that I should be doing the same, and I will make conscious effort to do so. If you would like to read or watch Mark's entire story go to
http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/ncf/news/story?id=4526574
It will send chills down your spine, it is that touching of a story.

And Abby, do I need to change the name of my web address now? (: