Monday, May 2, 2011

NHL in the NFL

There was a nice story coming out of the NFL draft last week.

The Patriots drafted Marcus Cannon, an offensive tackle from Texas Christian, in the fifth round. He had been projected to be picked much higher, maybe as high as the 2nd round. But just before the draft, he found out he had a form of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He started chemo the day before the draft, and should be finished in June.

Before they picked him, the Pats seemed to evaluate everything they knew: he's 22, in great health, and has a form of NHL with a 90% cure rate (not sure exactly what he has, but it ain't Follicular), and figured he was worth the risk. Good for them.

Poor Marcus Cannon. I say "poor" not because he has NHL, but because on top of all of the stress of the draft, he also had to deal with all kinds of rumors about his health. Apparently, he had a benign growth in his groin four years ago. A couple of weeks ago, rumors came out that he had testicular cancer, and that a biopsy showed things were benign.  Of course, he didn't have testicular cancer, but he wasn't given good news, either. So I say "poor Marcus Cannon" because it's hard enough to deal with the uncertainty of a biopsy without having a hundred football web sites talk about it -- and get it wrong.

I think it's fascinating that the Patriots are following the Red Sox in supporting a potential star (for the Sox, it was Jon Lester, of course) as he deals with NHL. Boston is the Hub of the Universe, the Cradle of Liberty, and now The HomeWhere Those with Nodes of Gold Go Pro.

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