Dying child touched life of Lions' Stephen Tulloch

[Lil Bit Special]

http://www.freep.com/article/20120907/SPORTS01/309070139/detroit-lions-stephen-tulloch-dying-child

He was on crutches, barely ambulatory and

just back from Pensacola, Fla., where Dr.

James Andrews had performed

arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. So

when Stephen Tulloch saw his publicist,

Sherrie Handrinos, at his door one

Wednesday in May, his first instinct was to

shoo her away.

Handrinos picked up Tulloch from the

airport a day earlier, and on the way home

they talked about the upcoming charity

softball tournament he was hosting with

Lions teammate Nate Burleson.

The city of Dearborn, where the

tournament was being held, had reached

out and wondered: Would it be possible for

a boy suffering from a rare form of brain

cancer, 9-year-old Ryan Kennedy, to throw

out the first pitch at the game?

Of course, Tulloch said. But then Handrinos

talked to Kennedy's mother, and it became

clear Kennedy wouldn't make it 3 1/2

weeks to the game.

So Handrinos rushed to tell Tulloch how

urgent the situation was, and Tulloch

agreed. He hobbled to his car and made

the hour-long drive to Independence

Township, one leg elevated the entire way.

When he got to Kennedy's quad-level

home, Tulloch hopped up three flights of

stairs, plopped down on the bed next to

him and spent the next 2 hours playing

video games, talking life, football and

cancer with Kennedy and his family.

Tulloch's close friend, John Jarret, died

from the disease years earlier. Jarret, who

played high school football with the Lions'

linebacker, was an undersized receiver

and the hardest worker Tulloch ever saw.

"He was like Superman to me," Tulloch

said. Tulloch said a ravaged Ryan

reminded him of his old friend in many

ways.

Diagnosed with ependymoma on March 29,

2007, Kennedy had seven tumor

resections, two rounds of radiation and

four rounds of chemotherapy. Most of the

tumors were attached to his brain stem

and areas that controlled swallowing and

breathing, and when a few were removed

from his internal auditory canal in August

2011, he suffered hearing loss.

In March, the little boy who had a Calvin

Johnson jersey in his room and pitched for

his Little League baseball team, told his

mother, Kimberly Morris-Karp, "Mommy, I

just want to live my life right now. I want to

live like I did before I had cancer."

"We just shared all of that with Stephen and

he just really -- I think that just touched

him," Morris-Karp said. "And he decided

from that point on, I guess, that he wanted

to make a difference and get the message

out about childhood cancer."

Ryan died May 26, two days after his 10th

birthday and 10 days after Tulloch's visit,

but his family has remained close to

Tulloch's heart since.

Tulloch had a silicone bracelet with

#RyanKennedy on his wrist when a reporter

approached him in the locker room about

this story last week. For Sunday's home

opener against the Rams, he'll host Morris-

Karp, her husband, Rob Karp, and their

kids, Nathan and Mckenzie Morris. And as

part of the Stephen Tulloch Foundation, he

donated 55 tickets to each home game this

month -- September is Childhood Cancer

Awareness month -- to families with

children affected by cancer.

The 55 fans also will wear gold T-shirts

with Kennedy's name and Tulloch's No. 55

on the back. Gold signifies childhood

cancer awareness, like pink does breast

cancer.

Morris-Karp said she's grateful for the

support Tulloch has shown her family and

her cause.

"It's just a powerful thing, because what I'd

like to see is this to blow up and to every

year see it get bigger and bigger and

bigger, and start doing more research and

funding for childhood cancer," she said.

"What I'd like to see is in September when

the NFL kicks off, my ultimate goal is to see

them wearing the yellow gloves and yellow

cleats instead of pink, because kids look

up to football players, and it's a great

thing."

Tulloch wants to defeat the disease, too.

When he left Kennedy's house in May, he

called Handrinos shortly after he got in the

car and said two words: Thank you. "I was

in pain (after my surgery) and I was like,

'Ah, can I go later?' " Tulloch said. "And she

was like, 'You've got to go now,' so I went

and I'm glad I went. ... It changed my life.

Big-time."

[Jared]

Great feel-good story. There are some important business lessons in there too. Number 1 is when you hire any sort of experienced advisor (whether it is a publicist, attorney, CPA, etc), and they tell you to do something, you do it. You're not smarter than them (or you wouldn't have needed to hire them in the first place).