Herzlich Beat Cancer, Now Wants to Beat Patriots

INDIANAPOLIS – Cancer was the hard part. The Patriots are just a football team. At least that’s what l alum would like to think heading into match up.

Herzlich, a linebacker with the New York Giants, was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a form of bone cancer in 2009. After going undrafted out of Boston College, he signed as a free agent with the Giants in 2011. His rookie season has been memorable and one last win would solidify a magnificent journey from near death to Super Bowl champion that doesn’t happen very often.

“Playing football again was that goal, and that really pushed me,” he said. “After six hours of chemotherapy, you’re sitting there and your body just feels drained. You don’t want to move, but I said, ‘I am going to be playing football again in eight months, so I need to go and workout. I need to go ride a bike, get some cardio in.’ That’s what I did.”

Herzlich made a highlight video for himself from his 2008 season. During the worst days of chemo he would use it as motivation.

Recalling the pain he endured when he was sick, Herzlich said football injuries are completely different. The distinct sharp knife feeling at random times was something he hopes to never feel again.

“The pain you get during football is muscle fatigue and soreness,” he said. “You can tell when you break a bone or get a muscle pull and it was kind of a deeper kind of pain the way the cancer felt.”

He took to the Twitter waves last week, which grabbed regional headlines for his profound words of hope and admiration for his current situation: “2 yrs ago I was told I might never walk again. Just WALKED off plane in Indy to play in the #SuperBowl. #TakeThatSh*tCancer.”

Later in the week he said, “I never get pissed because of what my cancer took from me, because it has shaped the man I am today. And I like the man I am today.”

He didn’t think his tweet would make news.

“That’s the thing about anything you say – whether good or bad – on social media that will be around the world in a second,” he said. “I was very pleased and very happy that so many people got to see it, because that is part of what my goal and mission. Obviously, this week is all about football and all about playing, but there are people out there who are going through cancer right now who see that and say, ‘Hey, if he is doing it, I can do it.’”

Giants head coach Tom Coughlin has recognized the “toughness, grit and determination,” of Herzlich this season. He praised his professionalism this week during media sessions.

“He’s a guy that never, ever missed one thing,” Coughlin said. “All through camp, he worked his ever-loving off and was out every day, fully-padded, ready to go. He’s a football player, he loves to play and be around it.

“He wants to be a good football player, and he’s been a tremendous inspiration to us even though he doesn’t want anything to do with that. You have to understand that, and he doesn’t want to be referred to in that way at all. He’s a tremendous example.”

Follow Herzlich on Twitter and @ChrisVaccaro for updates from Super Bowl XLVI.