January262009
From Tampa Bay.com
By John Romano, Times Sports Columnist
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Son's fight with leukemia holds lessons for Pittsburgh Steelers' Aaron Smith
PITTSBURGH — It is a father's job to teach.
And so Aaron Smith sits his 4-year-old son down, and pulls out paper and pen. First, he draws a circle. Smooth, neat and clean. And then he draws a second circle with squiggly lines and imperfections.
He explains to Elijah the second circle is abnormal and needs to be replaced. That it needs to be removed to make room for more of the clean circles. The lesson is neither technical, nor quite anatomically correct, but it will suffice for now.
Aaron Smith of the Pittsburgh Steelers has a 5-year-old son who is battling leukemia.
Ten days before the Super Bowl, and the Steelers locker room is a madhouse.
One player chases another out the door and into a hallway where a staff member tells them to knock it off. Pictures making fun of placekicker Jeff Reed's shocking head of peroxide hair are pinned to the bulletin board. An offensive lineman kicks a soccer ball around the room before stopping to do a mangled cartwheel — all while nude.
Meanwhile, it is quiet near the locker of 32-year-old defensive end Aaron Smith. Just an empty chair and a copy of the Samson Syndrome, a book that suggests physical strength is less important than spiritual strength.
Nowhere in sight, Smith could be in the trainer's room. He might be in one of the meeting rooms. Or, perhaps, he is finding out more about All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, because doctors have told him that's where he needs to go if something happens to Elijah during the family's trip to the Super Bowl this week.
It has been a little more than three months since Smith and his wife, Jaimie, took Elijah to a children's hospital in Pittsburgh because he couldn't shake a cold. They were concerned a virus might have embedded itself in his chest.
Two hours after they arrived, they were taken into the office of an oncologist.
"How much do you know about leukemia?" the doctor began.
It felt as if the floor had collapsed beneath them. Their lives had been irretrievably changed at that moment, and everything they had felt certain of was now in doubt.
READ MORE/STORY CONTINUED at Tampa Bay.com by John Romano
From Tampa Bay.com
By John Romano, Times Sports Columnist
---
Son's fight with leukemia holds lessons for Pittsburgh Steelers' Aaron Smith
PITTSBURGH — It is a father's job to teach.
And so Aaron Smith sits his 4-year-old son down, and pulls out paper and pen. First, he draws a circle. Smooth, neat and clean. And then he draws a second circle with squiggly lines and imperfections.
He explains to Elijah the second circle is abnormal and needs to be replaced. That it needs to be removed to make room for more of the clean circles. The lesson is neither technical, nor quite anatomically correct, but it will suffice for now.
Aaron Smith of the Pittsburgh Steelers has a 5-year-old son who is battling leukemia.Ten days before the Super Bowl, and the Steelers locker room is a madhouse.
One player chases another out the door and into a hallway where a staff member tells them to knock it off. Pictures making fun of placekicker Jeff Reed's shocking head of peroxide hair are pinned to the bulletin board. An offensive lineman kicks a soccer ball around the room before stopping to do a mangled cartwheel — all while nude.
Meanwhile, it is quiet near the locker of 32-year-old defensive end Aaron Smith. Just an empty chair and a copy of the Samson Syndrome, a book that suggests physical strength is less important than spiritual strength.
Nowhere in sight, Smith could be in the trainer's room. He might be in one of the meeting rooms. Or, perhaps, he is finding out more about All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, because doctors have told him that's where he needs to go if something happens to Elijah during the family's trip to the Super Bowl this week.
It has been a little more than three months since Smith and his wife, Jaimie, took Elijah to a children's hospital in Pittsburgh because he couldn't shake a cold. They were concerned a virus might have embedded itself in his chest.
Two hours after they arrived, they were taken into the office of an oncologist.
"How much do you know about leukemia?" the doctor began.
It felt as if the floor had collapsed beneath them. Their lives had been irretrievably changed at that moment, and everything they had felt certain of was now in doubt.
READ MORE/STORY CONTINUED at Tampa Bay.com by John Romano
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