{"id":18122,"date":"2026-03-11T05:38:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T05:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/an-nfl-players-battle-with-crohns\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:05:07","slug":"an-nfl-players-battle-with-crohns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/entertainment\/sports\/an-nfl-players-battle-with-crohns\/","title":{"rendered":"An NFL Player’s Battle with Crohn’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a football player, a quarterback with the NFL\u2019s Jacksonville Jaguars. I\u2019m used to pain. You get hit, you get up and keep going.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019d never felt anything like the pain that ripped through my gut that January afternoon in 2004. One minute I was sitting in my lounge chair at home watching TV, the next minute I was doubled over. Not even Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis hitting me from the blind side hurt that bad. For a few minutes, I could hardly breathe. Finally the pain went away.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d just sat up again when it came back, worse than before. I was sweating and shivering at the same time. \u201cMary, come here,\u201d I called to my wife. \u201cI feel like my stomach\u2019s about to explode.\u201d She had to help me up from the chair.<\/p>\n

The next 24 hours, the pain came and went in waves. Then it stopped. Some kind of nasty bug, I figured, and put it out of my mind.<\/p>\n

I had to focus on getting in top shape, stronger than I\u2019d ever been. My goal that year was to finally win the starting job at quarterback, a job I\u2019d been dreaming of\u2014and working for\u2014almost all my life.<\/p>\n

I still remember the day I fell in love with the game. I was six. My mom took me to my older brother Anthony\u2019s football practice. The sunshine, the guys running around in their uniforms, the smell of the grass\u2014everything about it was magic. This is me,<\/em> I thought. This is what I want to do when I grow up.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not only did I want to play football, I wanted to be the quarterback, the team leader. By middle school, I was. My mother might not have understood the x\u2019s and o\u2019s, but she understood my passion. She felt the same way about nursing, lifting her patients\u2019 spirits, tending to their bodies and souls.<\/p>\n

She was always telling me I could achieve anything I dreamed if I believed in myself and in God. Not that I should expect everything to come easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to put in the effort, then trust in the Lord. With his help, you\u2019ll succeed,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t let anything keep you down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mom didn\u2019t. Not when she and my father got divorced and she had to raise us on her own. Not even when she got breast cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy strength comes from my faith,\u201d she told me. I didn\u2019t really know what she meant, not then, but I know I never once saw her spirits flag. Right to the end\u2014she died when I was 14\u2014she had joy in her heart.<\/p>\n

Her example and my brother\u2019s\u2014Anthony put his own life on hold and moved back home to raise my younger sister and me\u2014drove me. I dedicated myself to football in high school, picked my coaches\u2019 brains, trained like crazy, stuck to my guns about playing QB even though some college recruiters wanted me to try tight end or fullback because of my size.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t let up in college, at East Carolina University, where I became the starting quarterback partway through freshman year. My teammates might chill out at the dorm after practice. I studied game tape, did extra workouts.<\/p>\n

Okay, I\u2019ll admit, I didn\u2019t spend all my time outside the classroom at the football complex\u2014I also met and fell in love with another student named Mary Knox, a tennis player who was as much of a sports nut as I was.<\/p>\n

My extra effort paid off. In April of 2002, my senior year, the Jaguars selected me in the fourth round of the NFL draft. There were no guarantees, but their starting quarterback was nearing retirement. They drafted me expecting I\u2019d replace him in a year or two.<\/p>\n

I spent the 2002 NFL season on the bench, but I felt so close to achieving my dream, it was almost like heaven. I worked harder than I had in college, training, watching game film, peppering the veterans and the QB coach with questions. I soaked up as much knowledge of the pro game as I could.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I get my chance, I want to be ready,\u201d I told Mary, who, by then, was my wife.<\/p>\n

But then came the 2003 NFL draft. The Jags had a first-round pick and they chose Byron Leftwich, the most heralded QB to come out of college that year. Mary and I heard the news on the car radio. I almost drove off the road. \u201cI guess they just don\u2019t believe in me,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Mary gave me a look, kind of like Mom would have. \u201cHe still has to beat you out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did. I tried my best, but Leftwich won the starting job. The job that was supposed to be mine. I was relegated to backup again. My confidence took a hit. For the first time I questioned my ability. I wondered about the dream I\u2019d had since I was six. What if I\u2019d gotten it wrong?<\/p>\n

Watching from the sidelines as Leftwich led the offense, I had plenty of time to think. What I thought about, mostly, was my mother. That inner strength of hers, I could really use some of it now. I remembered how she used to tell me, With the Lord\u2019s help, you\u2019ll succeed.<\/p>\n

One night toward the end of that trying season, I lay in bed and prayed. Not that I\u2019d take over as the starter, but that I could be as strong as Mom had been. I asked for faith like hers. I woke up feeling reinvigorated. Next year\u20142004\u2014would be my year. Hand in hand with the Lord, I\u2019d find my way back to the field.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I shrugged off that bout of abdominal pain in January and stepped up my workouts. But two months later, when I reported to Jacksonville for the team\u2019s off-season conditioning program, I still didn\u2019t feel right. The trainer sent me to a gastroenterologist. The doctor ran a bunch of tests and took X rays. He told me I had something called Crohn\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust give me whatever pill I need to clear it up,\u201d I said. I figured if I\u2019d never heard of it, it couldn\u2019t be that serious.<\/p>\n

But it was. The doctor explained that Crohn\u2019s is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the small intestine, making it all but impossible for food to pass through. \u201cNo one knows exactly how or why you get it,\u201d he said. He\u2019d put me on medication to control the inflammation, but there was no cure. It was a disease I\u2019d have to live with.<\/p>\n

I called Mary and told her the diagnosis. By the time I got home, she\u2019d printed out a ton of information from the internet. She looked worried. \u201cDave, a lot of people who have Crohn\u2019s don\u2019t do that well maintaining an active lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019d see about that. The medication helped. I modified my diet. No more spicy food, roughage or sweets that would irritate my small intestine. Within a few weeks I felt well enough to go out to a Thai restaurant with my teammates. Big mistake. I awoke in the middle of the night vomiting. Mary found me curled on the bathroom floor, so wracked by abdominal cramps I couldn\u2019t move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking you to the E.R., Dave.\u201d She had to help me\u2014her 250-pound NFL quarterback husband\u2014into my clothes.<\/p>\n

I was laid up in the hospital for four days, unable to eat a thing. They put me on IV fluids. Still I dropped 30 pounds. I felt weak, woozy. Mom kept floating in and out of my thoughts. Maybe it was because I was light-headed, but I swear, one night it felt like she was right there beside me.<\/p>\n

I started talking to her. \u201cI need you to be here. Help me come through this so I can live my life the way I know you want me to\u2014with strength, confidence and faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then it hit me. I wasn\u2019t talking to my mom so much as praying to my heavenly Father, trusting him with my life the way Mom did with hers. I told Mary about my prayer. \u201cI think I finally understand what Mom meant about strength coming from faith,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

I ended up having surgery to remove a section of my diseased intestines. Six weeks later I was on the field again, practicing hard, getting back into game shape. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s in store for me,\u201d I said to Mary, \u201cbut I know in my heart I can play.\u201d When Byron Leftwich went down with an injury in November, I was ready to step in.<\/p>\n

On game day, I jogged out of the tunnel onto the field at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. The roar of the crowd fired me up. We played Detroit. The game had plenty of drama. We pulled ahead early, then the Lions caught up and sent us into overtime. I threw a touchdown pass to win the game. The crowd roared even louder. It was every bit as magical as the day I discovered football.<\/p>\n

That was five years ago. I\u2019m the starting quarterback for the Jaguars now, living the dream God put in my heart. My Crohn\u2019s is under control. It might flare up again, but I\u2019m not worried. I know with the Lord\u2019s help, I can handle whatever happens.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like I tell kids who share my disease: You might have Crohn\u2019s, but it doesn\u2019t have you. Don\u2019t let it keep you down. Go and live your dream.<\/p>\n

Did you enjoy this story? Subscribe to <\/em>Guideposts<\/strong><\/a> magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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