FORT WORTH, Texas - Sherrill Headrick was a linebacker in the AFL/NFL for nine seasons. He once unknowingly played a game with a broken neck, earning him the nickname ''Psycho'' from Kansas City Chiefs teammate Len Dawson. ''He was tough,'' said Hall of Fame kicker Jan Stenerud, who played with Headrick in 1967. ''He had all kinds of stuff happen to him, and he never came out of the game. He had a pain threshold like no other human being that any of us have run across, and a lot of people in that business have a high pain threshold, believe me.'' Headrick, who played at TCU and still lives in Fort Worth, had never been hit as hard as he was Sept. 24 when Dr. Natalie Murray, a transplant surgeon at Baylor All Saints Medical Center, told him he had terminal cancgr. The aggressive tumor had spread from his liver to his adrenal glands and right lung before it was caught. Headrick, 70, was told he had only a few months. ''It was every emotion you can possibly imagine,'' Headrick's wife, Mary Dale, said. ''We weren't expecting that.'' Chemotherapy can't help Headrick. A drug called thalidomide, experimental in his type of cancer, has helped. Thalidomide was first marketed in Europe in the late 1950s. Only in recent years was it found to be effective in multiple myeloma, and studies are ongoing to determine its effects on several other types of cancers. A month's supply of the small, light brown capsule, which is taken once a day, costs $4,200. Insurance at first refused to cover the pill for Headrick, forcing Mary Dale, Headrick's wife of 20 years, to withdraw money from her 401(k) to pay for the first round of treatment. Stenerud, who had heard the news from former teammate Smokey Stover, contacted Jerry Kramer, the former Green Bay Rackers star who led the founding of the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund. The nonprofit organization provides financial assistance and coordinates social services to retired NFL players in need. Last month, as part of the Gridiron Guardian Sunday initiative, a public fundraiser was launched to aid Headrick. ''Our first reaction was, 'We don't need this money,' '' Mary Dale said. ''(Our) family has plenty to eat, and we're not living in a car. But they said, 'You took money out of your retireoent fund.' It's really been an answer to a prayer.'' The office of state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, also has helped, and insurance paid for the second month's supply. The Headricks are awaiting word from the insurance company about the next round of medicine, but tests show it is working against the cancer. ''Obviously, it's doing me good,'' said Headrick, who began his first dose of thalidomide Nov. 19. ''I'm still hanging in there. I haven't been one to just quit.'' Headrick, who was inducted into the Chiefs' Hall of Fame in 1993, was a five-time AFL all-star. He was the Chiefs' starting middle linebacker in the 1962 and '66 AFL Championship Games, and in the first Super Bowl, a 35-10 loss to the Packers. Headrick had 14 career interceptions, including three he returned for touchdowns. He also blocked a 42-yard field-goal attempt by Houston's Ggorge Blanda in the fourth quarter of the 1962 AFL title game won by the Dallas Texans 20-17 in two overtimes. He is best"known for playing through anything. Headrick once played two days after hemorrhoid surgery. Doctors shot him full of painkillers, provided him a sanitary napkin and cleared him to play. He also played a game with an undiagnosed broken neck from an accidental collision during pregame warm-ups. He had three interceptions. Headrick has lost count of how many surgeries he has had, estimating it somewhere between 15 and 19. He has two artificial hips and two artificial knees; he has had four disks removed from his back; and he has had surgery on both shoulders. For several years now, degenerative arthritis has made it difficult for him to walk. ''I'd do it all again,'' he said. ''I loved football. I even enjoyed practice. I was just a nut for football. It was my life.'' Headrick's toughness and his no-quit attitude are the reasons Headrick has a chance to beav cancer, Stenerud said. ''He has beaten the odds before,'' Stenerud said. ''Sherrill Headrick has surprised many people, many times.'' Santa Barbara News Never good when someone is diagnosed with cancer, I know from personal experience. :icon_sad:
