What It Takes ― Fighting for My Life and My Love of the Game

In 2011, Mark Herzlich became the starting linebacker for a New York Giants team that would win the Super Bowl?just two years after he had been told that he would never play football again. Now Herzlich tells his moving story for the first time.

As a child, Herzlich found an inspiring and grounding force in football, eventually turning his passion into a first-team All-American spot at Boston College. But after being named the conference’s top defensive player his junior season, the budding star was sidelined by a persistent, debilitating pain in his left leg.

After months of tests, Herzlich received a shocking diagnosis: He had Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. Doctors put his odds of survival as low as 15 percent?and no one thought he would be able to run, much less play, again. But then Herzlich learned of a radical alternative: a regimen of grueling radiation followed by the replacement of his femur with a titanium rod. It was his only chance to return to the game he loved, the only choice he could make.

Herzlich relied on family, friends, faith, and deep wells of determination to help him through treatment, and his drastic plan worked. Not only could he run, but he could block, tackle, and blitz. And even when he didn’t win a spot in the NFL draft, Herzlich kept grinding, winning a spot in the Giants’ training camp, and, eventually, on their roster.

Mark Herzlich fought a battle against cancer, against statistics, and some days against himself. Told with candor and raw emotion, this is a story for anyone who has ever fought to beat the odds, for anyone who has ever been told that what they are about to attempt is next to impossible.

Herzlich’s story embodies powerful lessons about what can be achieved through persistence and belief, and he serves as living proof that overcoming the impossible is only the beginning.

Mark Herzlich is a linebacker for the New York Giants. Winner of the ESPY award for Best Comeback by an Athlete, Mark now seeks to inspire others to fight their own diseases and achieve their dreams in the face of harsh obstacles. He lives in New Jersey.


Isaac Eger is a sport writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times. He lives in Brooklyn.