As heartbreaking as Cincinnati’s opening-day loss to the Chargers was on Sunday, at the end of the day it’s still only football. And it pales in comparison to what Gavin Schaffer is going through.
Schaffer, the son of Joe Mixon’s agent, Peter Schaffer, was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that develops in the lymphatic system from cells known as lymphocytes. The disease affects over 8,500 Americans every year, and is most common in people between the ages of 15 and 40. The five-year survival rate for these patients is about 86 percent.