It’s one classy and compassionate move on the part of the Cincinnati Bengals.
According to ABC News, the Ohio football team cut defensive tackle Devon Still from its roster but then signed him on to its practice squad in order to help him pay for his 4-year-old daughter’s cancer treatments.
As a practice-squad player, the 25-year-old will get $6,300 a week in salary, as well as much-needed medical insurance. His daughter, Leah, has stage 4 pediatric cancer, diagnosed in June, the news site notes.
Still calls the gesture a “blessing in disguise,” not begrudging the team at all for cutting him and marveling at its generosity. “I completely understand where the Bengals were coming from when they cut me because I couldn’t give football 100 percent right now,” Still told the news site. “They could have washed their hands with me and said they didn’t care about what I was going through off the field … it’s like a blessing in disguise for me.”
As ABC News notes, being on the practice squad also means that he won’t have to travel as much, giving him more time to spend with Leah during her chemotherapy. “We’re going to go to battle with cancer,” Still added. “She’s willing to put up a fight to beat it.”
Read more at Yahoo News.