Twice The Fight: A Football Family Battles With Cancer

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Andy Hoffman and his family found the national spotlight back in 2013 when his 7-year-old son, Jack, who was battling a brain tumor, scored a 69-yard touchdown in a Nebraska Red and White intrasquad football game. Since then, Andy has made it his mission to help his son and children like him to beat this disease, by raising funds for pediatric brain cancer research through his Team Jack foundation. Seven year later, Jack, now 15, is healthy enough to pursue his dreams of playing high school football. But over the summer, his father Andy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Now, Andy Hoffman is still fighting: to raise awareness for pediatric brain cancer, to savor the time he has left, and to cheer for his son on the football field. As part of ESPN’s V Week, Chris Connelly joins the show to bring us this story, as told by E:60. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Chris Connolly, I want to start back in 2013 with a moment that I think a lot of sports
0:06.6	fans will remember seeing.
0:12.5	In the spring of 2013, a young seven-year-old boy who had been battling a brain tumor
0:18.7	did a remarkable thing. Chris Connolly is a reporter for ESPN.
0:23.6	He ran 69 yards for a touchdown in the Nebraska Intrasquad game that spring.
0:30.6	Hoffman to midfield.
0:33.6	Hoffman, second level.
0:35.6	He's got another gear.
0:36.6	They are not going to catch him.
0:38.3	The sight of this young boy with the football tucked under his arm,
0:44.3	being ushered into the end zone by both offense and defense from the Cornhuskers,
0:49.3	been celebrating his touchdown and then being carried off the field on the shoulders of the cornhuskers to a packed house was one of those pieces of video that I think just really sticks in people's mind.
1:03.0	You felt it in your heart just watching it.
1:06.0	Tell me what's going through your head when you get the ball. What are you thinking about?
1:10.0	Um, before the touchdown.
1:13.6	Back in 2013, I talked to that young boy and his family.
1:17.6	And as 2020 came around, there was a dramatic transformation in that family's story.
1:24.6	So we reconnected once again with that family and told what is now a very different story.
1:30.3	A grave story, but a story that when we honor the memory of Jim Belvano by raising awareness of cancer's impact on so many lives and the urgent need for cancer research.
2:03.6	Today, the unforgettable story of Andy and Jack Hoffman, a father and son whose battle with this terrible disease,
2:12.6	embodies Valvano's immortal words. Don't give up, don't ever give up.
2:20.8	I'm Pablo Torre. It's Wednesday, December 9th. This is ESPN Daily.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ESPN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of ESPN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.