Still Good

 

Do no harm still remains a good motto to follow.

As a man, our first instinct should be to protect, not harm those we love.  If you are a pro football fan, like me, these past three months have been beyond disturbing.   Sadly, in the last few months we have been over exposed to the ugly side of what men, who wear helmets for a living as they  crash into one another, can do to those they love when lose self-control.

All is not lost however and recently something happened to help me see that more clearly.  It is a moving story about a father who loves his child more than himself and that man happens to be a football player by the name of Devon Still.

 

Devon Still is a third year defensive lineman who plays for the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL.   Just this past June, without any warning, Devon Still received the worst news any parent could ever be told. While he was in training camp vying for a roster spot, he was told by doctors that his four year old daughter, Leah, had a form of cancer called Neuroblastomia.  Still was told that Leah had a 50 % chance of survival.

The football playing father immediately put his career on hold.  “She’s fighting for her life…sports is not more important than me being there while my daughter is fighting for her life.”  Since that day,   Devon spent the next three weeks sleeping next to his daughter at the hospital despite a football related injury he had recently suffered.  Still even shaved his head bald to show support for his daughter who lost her hair due to the chemo therapy treatment. 

Fortunately, after several weeks of treatment Leah was doing well enough that her father decided to go back to football camp. Still had weighed her costs of continued treatment around million dollars,  so he came back in order to keep his health benefits.  Unfortunately when training camp was over the Bengals waived Devon.  Then something wonderful happened.  Instead of just letting him go the Bengals put him on the practice squad, so he could keep his insurance to help pay for Leah’s treatment.  Still was beyond grateful as this allowed him to spend maximum time with his daughter.

Then something even more remarkable happened, the news of Leah and Devon Still began to go viral.  In an effort to aid the cause further the Bengals announced that proceeds from the sales of Still’s # 75 football jersey, which sells for $100, would be given to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to support kids’ cancer research.  Reportedly, by the end of October, donations for Still’s jersey topped over 1 million dollars. Devon Still, and others like him, remind us that more times than not we should focus on something more important than a touchdown; someone’s life.

Evil is always present, yet still good exists if we are willing to pursue it

Swavel