Berry out for the year

[Captain Obvious]

Surprise of the day: Chiefs put S Eric Berry on NFI - no -football Illness, which means he is out for the year, per source.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 24, 2014

[Lonewolf Ed]

To those few who are trying to make jokes about this, how about you treat it like it was me or Meatball Dave instead? Hmmm?

[JohnnyV13]

I talked to my father, who is a retired gastroenterologist who has, however, diagnosed lymphoma many times, told me:

1) It's possibly a benign mass such as a slow growing granuloma or a sarcoid tumor.

That's the best case. If so, Berry might play again.

2) Even in the best case, he will require treatment, and expects they would perform surgery to remove the mass.

3) He wonders why they floated the lymphoma diagnosis. Perhaps they believed that him seeing a lymphoma specialist would get out and people would presume. He says you can't diagnose it from tests. Need to biopsy.

4) If it's lymphoma, he doubts Berry plays again. He says non-hodgkin's lymphoma rarely has a mass, so he presumes it will be hodgkin's lymphoma if it is indeed cancerous.

Rule of thumb is s 70% cure rate.

He also says that in young patients, its more likely to be aggressive, but young patients also will be able to stand rigorous chemo so are more likely to survive BUT,

he also says if it's located in the lung cavity, that's the "bad" type. Also, in most lymphoma cases even if they are cured, they will probably need periodic chemo for the rest of their life---which is why he doubts Berry will play again.

If not curable, they usually can give patients 15 to 17 years of life with treatment.

All of this will depend on the specific type and stage, which you will only know after biopsy.

[penbrook]

Originally Posted by Tuckdaddy

No tweet from Flowers yet? Is he asleep?

He tweeted earlier

[Kidd Lex]

Originally Posted by Hootie 2.0

I'm not in the least concerned about his potential return to the NFL.

I just want him to get healthy.

qft

[Mr. Kotter]

[Kidd Lex]

Originally Posted by Cunning Linguist

Love this. It's funny, and shows you how cool he is while highlighting his equinophobia, for those who haven't seen it.

Berry is the man!!! Thanks for sharing and God Speed #29!!!

[TLO]

I have no doubt Berry will be fine, but it's still so hard to hear news like this. Get well soon, Eric.

[cdcox]

I was fortunate enough to see him speak at a banquet earlier this year. I donned my Chiefs cap when he was speaking, felt like a 12 year old worshiping his hero, and it was awesome. He is a very high character guy and I wish him all the best in his recovery.

[CaliforniaChief]

I am just hoping EB can live a full and healthy life. If he can play football again, that would be awesome for him because it would signify a full return and complete recovery...we would just get to celebrate with him.

Prayers for a full recovery!!!!!! And for all of you touched by cancer or with a loved one in that spot.

[MMXcalibur]

Prayers going out to Eric Berry and his family.
Thankfully he's in good shape and has enough money to help him fight this.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed

To those few who are trying to make jokes about this, how about you treat it like it was me or Meatball Dave instead? Hmmm?

But, . . ? ? ?

We LIKE Eric Berry.

[R8RFAN]

Sending prayers out to the Berry family

[PhillyChiefFan]

Still really upset about this. Never met the guy, but loved how he played the game and loved seeing him in Chiefs red. Damn shame if he never plays again, but would rather he lived a long and healthy life than play what amounts to an insignificant game in the grand scheme of life.

Best of luck and prayers #29.

[The Franchise]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/...guy/ar-BBfGkZm

If cancer picked a fight with Chiefs' Berry, it picked on the wrong guy

KANSAS CITY, Mo.*-- Oh, cancer. You just picked a fight with the wrong guy.

Head to YouTube.com, type in the words "Eric Berry," and "hit," and more than 16,000 different videos pop up -- highlight after highlight of the Kansas City Chiefs safety laying out the kind of wood you find in a Home Depot.

There's Berry in college at Tennessee, turning SEC hammers such as Knowshon Moreno and Ben Tate into giant piles of Silly Putty. There's Berry, now wearing No. 29 with the Chiefs, as a rookie in 2010, dropping Philadelphia speedster DeSean Jackson during a preseason collision like the guy was a bad habit. Berry lowers a shoulder, Jackson does the same coming off a screen, and No. 10 gets up kind of woozy; most clips show him leaving the game a short while later.

"I just took a little hit, and there was a sharp pain that went through my back," Jackson told the Philadelphia Inquirer at the time. "It wasn't too serious. They just held me out because it was too close to the regular season."

So lymphoma has a face.

And it's a face that hasn't lost a staring contest yet.

"At first I was in shock with the diagnosis on Saturday and did not even want to miss a game," said a statement released by the Chiefs' All-Pro safety, who Monday night was headed to Atlanta after team officials announced they'd discovered a "mass" on the right side of his chest -- a mass that they suspect is lymphoma. "But*I understand that*right now I have to concentrate on a new opponent. I have great confidence in*the doctors and the plan they are going to put in place for me to win this fight."

The Chiefs (7-4) have a battle on their hands Sunday night, entertaining the division-leading Denver Broncos (8-3) at Arrowhead Stadium.

Eric Berry has a bigger one.

"I've said it once (Monday)," Chiefs coach Andy Reid told reporters late Monday afternoon. "And I'll say it a bunch of times -- that this is about Eric."

Berry felt discomfort in his chest Thursday evening, during a soggy, stunning 24-20 setback at Oakland. An MRI on Friday showed a mass within the right side of the Pro Bowl safety's chest, trainer Rick Burkholder explained at a news conference. Burkholder said doctors were "75 percent" on a definitive diagnosis, but wanted to get him to specialists at Emory to perform a "biopsy on the lymph nodes or the mass."

The Georgia native was placed on the non-football injury list, ending 2014 after six games, a star-crossed campaign for one of the franchise's defensive stars that started with ankle problems and ended in shock.

"You put the Oakland Raiders to the side for this period here, and you put Denver aside for this period here," Reid said. "Football isn't as important as him getting himself better at this present moment. And that's the way the players approached it today and we will move on because that's how life goes. But we will move on with his spirit in hand."

Amen. Amen, amen, amen.

Football is a game -- a livelihood, sure, but a game, nonetheless. This is serious business: Lymphoma is a cancer that develops in the lymph nodes and lymphatic system and can form tumors in the immune system. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in which tumors develop from a kind of white blood cell known as lymphocytes, is the most common form (90 percent of cases) of the disease; Hodgkin lymphoma (10 percent of cases) is the other main type.

The five-year survival rate for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to the National Cancer Institute, was 69.3 percent from 2004-10. For Hodgkin lymphoma cases tracked over that same period, the survival rate was 85.3 percent.

So the odds are in Berry's favor. The road isn't. Hodgkin lymphoma can be treated with radiotherapy -- whose side-effects can include permanent sunburns, fatigue, diarrhea and hair loss -- but in advanced stages, it needs systemic chemotherapy.

"There were some guys who were obviously shocked by the information," Reid said. "We're really just a microcosm of life, is what we are in this building. And a small family -- maybe a big family, you could say. So you have the support, people standing up, and they work through the emotional part of it, support each other, and most of all, support Eric."

From Twitter, support for No. 29 came from every corner of the Twittersphere -- teammates, former teammates, rivals, and even media:

Of course, perhaps the best word, the final word, came from Burkholder himself:

"I believe that I am in God's hands and I have great peace in that," Berry's statement continued. "I know my coaches and teammates will hold things down here the rest of the season and until I am back running out of the tunnel at Arrowhead. I am so thankful and appreciative of being a part of this franchise and playing in front of the best fans in the NFL. I will be back!"

And nobody doubted it for a minute. Least of all the bodies left in Berry's wake, a chain of tackles that bridge three Pro Bowls.

"He's a beast," Reid told reporters. "And right now, he needs to be a beast."

Some things are bigger than Peyton Manning. Some people, too.

[Omaha]

Originally Posted by JohnnyV13

I talked to my father, who is a retired gastroenterologist who has, however, diagnosed lymphoma many times, told me:

1) It's possibly a benign mass such as a slow growing granuloma or a sarcoid tumor.

That's the best case. If so, Berry might play again.

2) Even in the best case, he will require treatment, and expects they would perform surgery to remove the mass.

3) He wonders why they floated the lymphoma diagnosis. Perhaps they believed that him seeing a lymphoma specialist would get out and people would presume. He says you can't diagnose it from tests. Need to biopsy.

4) If it's lymphoma, he doubts Berry plays again. He says non-hodgkin's lymphoma rarely has a mass, so he presumes it will be hodgkin's lymphoma if it is indeed cancerous.

Rule of thumb is s 70% cure rate.

He also says that in young patients, its more likely to be aggressive, but young patients also will be able to stand rigorous chemo so are more likely to survive BUT,

he also says if it's located in the lung cavity, that's the "bad" type. Also, in most lymphoma cases even if they are cured, they will probably need periodic chemo for the rest of their life---which is why he doubts Berry will play again.

If not curable, they usually can give patients 15 to 17 years of life with treatment.

All of this will depend on the specific type and stage, which you will only know after biopsy.

Good info. My brother & one of my college buddies had hodgkin's lymphoma when they were in high school. They both went through treatment and are now fine. My college buddy even played college football after being treated. They both have to take thyroid medicine for the rest of their lives, but I am hoping Berry's results are similar.