On April 8, Mark Gastineau emerged from his eighth and final chemotherapy session and walked through the first-floor waiting room at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Wiping tears from his eyes, he stopped at an antique ship bell mounted on the wall beneath a flat-screen TV. Eschewing the nearby box of tissues, he reached for the bell. Old No. 99, wearing an NFL alumni shirt underneath an unbuttoned, blue-denim long sleeve shirt, turned this into a vintage Gastineau moment.
The former New York Jets star rang the bell as part of Fox Chase's traditional, end-of-chemo ceremony.