FATE STACKED THE DECK

I never lacked for opportunities and challenges in my life and took them on as they came, usually enthusiastically and unconventionally, learning as I went. I was never one to conform but I was gifted and persistent given a cause I believed in, or a challenge I could affect that affected me.

The people in my life provided the opportunities and I always had a knack for seeing value in circumstances and situations that other people missed. While I have had more failures than successes, the successes sustained me and the failures incentivized me into my prime when I had a family and a purpose. I was well enough positioned in the business, political and sports worlds to be regarded as a “player” in each.

Then I was stricken with a progressive, debilitating and incurable Neurological Disease and everything changed. I was faced with the ultimate challenge. How to provide for my family while finding a cure. I had to reach back to my friends and they were there for me. I had to find a way to make my quest their own and worth their while. I did. They were in. Many were Hall of Famers, some similarly afflicted.

The rest is a saga. The scientists were stymied and funding for research was drying up. Other of our friends were stricken with the various forms. Football was a prime target. But collectively we were a force. In Columbus an event to combat cancer had sprung up, raising millions, grass roots and ambitious to the max.

Radically transformed, it was the answer. We could raise billions. But then we were betrayed