After Beating Lymphoma, James Conner Might Be the NFL's Most Inspirational Story

James Conner is an American football running back who was named ACC Player of the Year in 2014. In September of 2015, Conner was on the field playing against Youngstown when he spun out of a tackle and took a shot to his right knee. Immediately, he knew that something was wrong but he got up, brushed it off and jogged off the field. He sat out for the rest of the game and decided to undergo an MRI exam the next day. The results of his MRI revealed that he had a torn MCL and that he would need to undergo knee surgery. This meant that he would have to miss the rest of the season. “When it came back and you could see it off the bone, I just started crying like a little baby, because I had worked so hard. I wanted to enter the draft that year,” he said.

An accidental discovery

Days later, Conner underwent knee surgery and in October/November, his recovery was going quite well. However, as he began to exercise and lift weights, he noticed that he was getting out of breath really fast and experiencing dizziness. Doctors thought that he might have the flu or a sinus infection and they gave him different antibiotics. Yet, when the antibiotics proved ineffective, Conner visited an ear, nose and throat specialist who ordered an X-ray to his chest. The discovery was a large tumor. “If I never had this knee injury I would've been on the field and I probably would've been feeling out of shape and that I’ve got to work even harder. I’d be taking shots to the chest. I could've died on the field. I’m very thankful for my knee injury — I know He did that to save my life. ... He didn't want to harm me when he did my knee injury. He did it to save me,” said Conner.

After undergoing a biopsy to determine the severity of the tumor, Conner was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, stage 2. “I was just dumbfounded, mostly. First a torn MCL, and now … cancer? I had cancer. It’s an awful thing to find out, of course. But it’s also a strange thing to hear, because it’s just one of those things you never expect to be said to you. When you’re healthy, you find out about people being diagnosed and you sometimes don’t really think twice about it. If you hear about an athlete getting cancer, or a movie star, it’s like, Oh, wow, that’s unfortunate, but after that, to be honest, you kind of just go about your day. Then you hear someone say cancer in reference to you, and, all of a sudden, things get … real. You recognize something, right away, when you hear those words. You realize: People die from this,” he said.

Read on to learn more about Conner's story.

Photo: Twitter @mattfreedpghpg