The Colts had a bye week, but emotionally, they suffered a 31-0 defeat last week. They suffered a defeat that they couldn't prepare for, and that they couldn't Monday Morning QB and fix. They suffered a human defeat. It could cripple a young team trying to start a new era. It could change the way we look at Jim Irsay's decision to let Peyton Manning go. It could have a drastic effect an a frisky team with the easy part of their schedule coming up. More than anything, though, it could, although unlikely, end a life.
Chuck Pagano has Leukemia. It is a curable kind, a treatable kind. It isn't a death sentence. It may not even end his season (although, as long as he is okay, who cares when he comes back). Yet, it once again shows the horrors of this particular disease, one that continues its evil romp through society. I often say how ridiculous it is that society has put men on the moon without computers, has figured out how to create an industry built off of essentially fake money and computers and turn it into the most profitable in the world, has figured out a way to put billions of bytes of computer power into an object with the volume of a cubic centimeter, but hasn't been able to cure cancer. I know that this is a crass statement to make, that truly millions upon millions is poured yearly into cancer research, that incredible developments have been made, but every time I hear that another person has cancer, that another person has to fight this disease, it makes me feel the same way each time.
I'll get personal for a minute. I have a relative who was recently diagnosed. Originally, it was thought to be metastasized throughout the bones, and that it was as close to terminal as possible. Despite losing all my grandparents, two Uncles and an Aunt, none had been to cancer, so this was new ground. For the first time, I thought at the time, I would lose a relative to cancer, lose someone who had truly been a part of my life for so many years. Thankfully, this was a wrong diagnoses, that it was less serious than initially thought. It still needed a 16-week treatment of radiation and chemo-therapy, but with modern science, and the amazing fight and spirit of the person, there is a chance we will meet for years to come. But is it fair? Is it fair that some still have to go through this awful, painful, debilitating cycle of treatment, with that fear that its dormancy will one-day end.
Weeks later, I find out that my childhood friend's Dad had cancer. Luckily, he too had a treatable version, one that left him fighting for his life and vulnerable to many ills, but still living and breathing. To many, the trails of these three would be, and rightfully so, considered lucky. They will live. Many won't. I might sound naive, but I don't care about that part, I only care that three people, one that I've grown up with, and one who is intimately connected to the person that was my first real 'best friend', fighting an evil that never stops, never rests, and never discriminates.
Getting back to Coach Chuck Pagano and my relative, it seems more cruel and evil than ever. My relative is a doctor, has dedicated their life to the medical industry, to helping people overcome their ills, and is cruelly saddled with falling victim to the fight they're fighting. For Pagano, he finally, after years upon years toiling in football isolation, in UNLV, East Carolina, UNC, Oakland, Cleveland and more before finally, at the age of 52, got his dream job. He got a great job, with a stable owner (despite what his Twitter account may let on), with a franchise, supposedly once-in-a-decade QB prospect, with a legacy of an organization with many great players and great coaches. He inherited a Mercedes, and just got blindsided by a mack truck.
Chuck Pagano, just like my relative and my friends' Dad, will almost certainly live. They will return to some semblance of normalcy. Because of medical advances millions of cancer patients around the world will defeat this dreadful, evil opponent. But that is still millions to many that need too. It may be just ranting, mad that the coach of my time, a first year coach that just got his dream job, needs to take eight weeks in isolation getting treatment. It may be just that I have someone who I've known my whole life that is fighting (and up till now beating) that same fight. I don't know what it is, but I've never felt angrier at this disease, at this evil that chooses blindly, without discrimination and discernment. It ruines lives on a whim, it forces humans to face and call up their most human emotion: strength. It brings out the best in people by forcing them to face the worst. It will bring out the best in Chuck Pagano, a man who looks ready for a fight anyway.
