Liver cancer can’t rob lineman of final season

The hardest time for Julian Paksi comes during the day, when he's working. Mowing lawns gives you too much time to think, too much time to worry about a future that's suddenly uncertain.

It's at night when he's lifting weights and running that his head begins to clear. Then there's a goal -- and some new totals to jot down in the journal that helps him prepare for the last football season of his life.

He gets comfort from the routine because he's been doing it most of his life. Talent wasn't going to get him anywhere, so he became the classic overachiever.

"Football has always been my life," Paksi said. "I don't know what my life would be like without it."

His plan always had been to anchor the defensive line this season for tiny Albion (Mich.) College in one final year of glory on the field. But life isn't just about football anymore.

Paksi found out just after the first of the year that he has a cancer so rare it took doctors weeks to figure out what was wrong with him. With no known cure, the only treatment is to get a new liver.

If there is any good news, it's that the cancer is slow growing and so far hasn't spread beyond the liver. Paksi was scheduled have another MRI on Saturday just to make sure.

His name should be on a liver transplant waiting list by now, but it's not. Paksi will take his chances for a few more months, determined not to let cancer rob him of a season that means so much.

To Paksi, it's simple. He's a football player.

"I'm getting so excited for the season," he said. "I don't want to be down: I want to be up high."

Paksi didn't have to look far for inspiration when he was diagnosed with Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, a cancer diagnosed in only a few hundred people each year in the United States. The day he found out, he went to a Relay for Life cancer meeting on campus, where he met a woman who was a liver cancer survivor.

Not long after he learned about Mark Herzlich, the Boston College linebacker who missed a season to bone cancer and now is trying to make the New York Giants as a rookie free agent. He has an article on Herzlich's battle pasted in his journal, and he reads it during times that he's down.

I wrote about Herzlich a few days ago, which is how Paksi ended up connecting with me on the phone. His girlfriend, Samantha Cornish, wrote to let me know how important Herzlich's fight was to Paksi.

Their stories are similar, their determination much the same. Both love the game so much that they refuse to let cancer take it away.

But while Herzlich was a star at a big school, a prospect so good that he once was considered a lock to be picked in the first round of the NFL Draft, Paksi plays Division III football for a school of just 1,650 in south central Michigan.

The 21-year-old pays his own way just like the other players at Albion. He's undersized at 5 feet 11 inches, 240 pounds, and he understands he has no career on the field once his senior season is over.

He has only one year left to play. The new liver will have to wait.

"It brings me down sometimes. I start thinking that I'm healthy, I'm a healthy kid and what did I do to deserve this," Paksi said. "But this summer I've been focusing and trying not to think about it. I'm trying to live my life like it was before I knew about it."

Paksi hasn't told many people about his condition. His fraternity brothers know, and so do a few teammates.

And, of course, his coach.

"Spring was the time he got most worried because he wasn't sure if he would have the transplant before the season," Albion coach Craig Rundle said. "He's handled it a lot better than I would have. He's accepted what it is and has a positive attitude."

Rundle said Paksi is the kind of player who always had to work harder than the next player to win a spot on the field. He blossomed last year at Albion, making eight tackles one week in a win over Olivet, and is the only returning starter on the defensive line.

"He's a throwback player," Rundle said. "He's a real humble guy, never worries about himself, just about the team. He's probably thought more about the team through all this than he has about himself."

The team was on Paksi's mind when we talked on the phone. With practice less than two weeks away, the excitement was building to see if a summer spent mowing lawns and lifting weights would pay off in one big final season.

The Britons, who have been playing football since 1888, finished second the past two seasons in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference. This year, Paksi figures they have a chance to upset conference powerhouse Trine University and win the title.

Paksi knows all the dates. The opener is Sept. 3 at Butler, and the last game is home Nov. 12 at Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium on the north bank of the Kalamazoo River against Trine.

One last date is Nov. 21. That's when he has an appointment for some final tests before his name goes on the transplant list.

Football will be over then. Ahead will be months of waiting for a new liver, months of worrying about what might go wrong.

"It's my life, not just my football life, and that's what makes it such a bummer," Paksi said. "I mean, I'm only 21 and I haven't even graduated college."

The only comfort for Paksi is he'll have his final season. He'll play football one last time. He's not about to let cancer take that away.

Tim Dahlberg is a Las Vegas-based national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg.