James B Daniels Jr.

In 2014, the Cincinnati Bengals cut Devon Still. Then they immediately signed him to the practice squad, for one reason only. So his health insurance wouldn't stop. His four year old daughter had just been given a 50/50 chance to live. June 2, 2014. Doctors walk into a waiting room and tell Devon Still that Leah, his four year old, has stage four neuroblastoma. A pediatric cancer. Fifty fifty odds. Still was a defensive tackle fighting for a roster spot. He missed most of training camp to be at the hospital, and when cuts came, he didn't make the 53 man roster. For most players that's the end. No team, no salary, and critically, no insurance. The Bengals signed him to the practice squad anyway. Not because they needed him. Because it kept his family covered, and gave him the freedom to fly to Philadelphia to be with his daughter whenever he needed. Then head coach Marvin Lewis and the organization did something else. They started selling Devon Still's number 75 jersey, and announced they would donate ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the proceeds to pediatric cancer research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. A backup defensive tackle's jersey. It became the best selling jersey in the NFL. Fans of other teams bought it. Rival organizations ordered them in bulk. Opposing players wore them. The Bengals eventually handed Cincinnati Children's a check for $1.3 million. Leah, meanwhile, was fighting. Chemotherapy. Radiation. Surgery to remove a tumor. Stem cell transplants. Her father documented all of it publicly, because he decided that if his family had to go through it, other families shouldn't have to feel alone in it. Then on March 25, 2015, Devon Still posted this: "June 2, 2014 and March 25, 2015 are days I will remember for the rest of my life." 296 days after the diagnosis, Leah Still was in remission. There was one more scare, a serious complication from the transplant that summer. She beat that too. By December 2015, her scans showed no evidence of disease at all. She got a Wheaties box. She and her dad won the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPYs, and she recorded a video message thanking everyone who helped her beat up cancer, because she was too sick to attend in person. The Bengals eventually released Devon Still for real in September 2015. And they made sure his medical insurance would stay active for five more years anyway, whether or not another team ever signed him. Leah is a teenager now. Healthy. She and her dad have written children's books for kids going through what she went through. Her advice to those kids: "You're not fighting this alone." An NFL team spent a roster spot on a dad instead of a player. For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap