Chris Hughes

[the Sports ON Tap @thesportsontap]

In 2014, the Cincinnati Bengals cut Devon Still.

Then they immediately signed him to the practice squad, for one reason only. So his health insurance wouldn't stop.

His four year old daughter had just been given a 50/50 chance to live.

June 2, 2014. Doctors walk into a waiting room and tell Devon Still that Leah, his four year old, has stage four neuroblastoma. A pediatric cancer. Fifty fifty odds.

Still was a defensive tackle fighting for a roster spot. He missed most of training camp to be at the hospital, and when cuts came, he didn't make the 53 man roster.

For most players that's the end. No team, no salary, and critically, no insurance.

The Bengals signed him to the practice squad anyway. Not because they needed him. Because it kept his family covered, and gave him the freedom to fly to Philadelphia to be with his daughter whenever he needed.

Then head coach Marvin Lewis and the organization did something else.

They started selling Devon Still's number 75 jersey, and announced they would donate ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the proceeds to pediatric cancer research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

A backup defensive tackle's jersey.

It became the best selling jersey in the NFL. Fans of other teams bought it. Rival organizations ordered them in bulk. Opposing players wore them.

The Bengals eventually handed Cincinnati Children's a check for $1.3 million.

Leah, meanwhile, was fighting. Chemotherapy. Radiation. Surgery to remove a tumor. Stem cell transplants. Her father documented all of it publicly, because he decided that if his family had to go through it, other families shouldn't have to feel alone in it.

Then on March 25, 2015, Devon Still posted this:

"June 2, 2014 and March 25, 2015 are days I will remember for the rest of my life."

296 days after the diagnosis, Leah Still was in remission.

There was one more scare, a serious complication from the transplant that summer. She beat that too. By December 2015, her scans showed no evidence of disease at all.

She got a Wheaties box. She and her dad won the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPYs, and she recorded a video message thanking everyone who helped her beat up cancer, because she was too sick to attend in person.

The Bengals eventually released Devon Still for real in September 2015.

And they made sure his medical insurance would stay active for five more years anyway, whether or not another team ever signed him.

Leah is a teenager now. Healthy. She and her dad have written children's books for kids going through what she went through.

Her advice to those kids: "You're not fighting this alone."

An NFL team spent a roster spot on a dad instead of a player.

For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap

[Sala12 @OficialSala12]

O mlk ficou tão feliz em tirar uma foto com o CR7 que nem o Chiellini no fundo impediu que ele postasse 😂😂

[hawkinn @h4wkinnn]

when drew brees went on sports science and showed he was more accurate than an olympic archer. this dude hit the bullseye 10/10 times brees was an absolute maniac

[Lewis Coombes @LewisCoombes]

The day Kevin Keegan walked out at the Potter’s Heron hotel near Romsey is stuff of #SaintsFC folklore…

In a time before ‘here we go’ and the social media rumour mill, journalists gathered for Lawrie McMenemy’s surprise announcement… they weren’t disappointed!

Saints had signed the best player in Europe.

A tribute…

#Keegan #KevinKeegan
@BBCSouthNews @BBCSport

[Wimbledon @Wimbledon]

Arthur Fery, Wimbledon semi-finalist.

An incredible achievement - the first British wild card to reach the final four at The Championships 🇬🇧

#Wimbledon

[Dekunle27 @dekunlz]

#ENGLAND  Mexico manager said

“GORDON! Fuck you!!! 😂😂😂

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Imagine the amount of good that football could do with £50m? For the same amount that it reportedly spent on lawyers last year the Premier League could fund 100 3G pitches, five in the vicinity of each of its 20 clubs. Imagine the impact on local residents’ physical and mental health, possibly even on talent ID?

Imagine what good football could do with £50m in making ticket prices more reasonable, especially for particular age-groups like 18-24s who generate much of the atmosphere (and TV rewards clubs handsomely for atmosphere). Fans, many struggling with rising prices during a cost-of-living crisis, would feel better about the Premier League and feel less a cash machine to be plundered at will by the elite. Imagine loyalty being rewarded. Imagine if even £5m was earmarked for subsidised away travel.

Imagine what £50m, which is paid out of the central PL pool, would do if invested judiciously throughout the football pyramid, especially in EFL academies which nurture those who go on to star for Premier League clubs like Raheem Sterling (QPR), Jadon Sancho (Watford) and John Stones (Barnsley).

The Premier League spent £15m more on lawyers in 23/24 than its admirable Charitable Fund distributed the previous season to 90+ club community organisations from National League to Premier League. The Fund’s a fantastic initiative, one of the biggest sporting charities in the world, and the Premier League is rightly proud of its impact, including supporting a workforce of 6,200 people “dedicated to improving the lives of people in their local area”. Imagine how many more lives they could improve if legal disputes were handled more swiftly and without battalions of barristers. If only brief meant brief.

The Premier League could be spending the same amount on lawyers in an 18-month period as it has invested in the life-changing Kicks projects over the past 18 years. Kicks tackles crime levels and youth disenchantment. More than half a million kids across 4,900 venues have benefited to date. That helps the country more than pouring millions into legal disputes. That also helps the country by providing a platform, and free coaching sessions, for those who end up playing for their country like Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Declan Rice.

The Premier League, of course, needs legal representation which doesn’t come cheap. Ditto the clubs. Increasingly some of the legal battles involve Magic Circle law-firms. Big club owners want big-name lawyers. The Premier League has to follow suit. The level of legal expertise is impressive, and some of the finest minds in the country are involved, but everyone seems to have forgotten that it should be a sport. That's not naivety. That's frustration that the game is being taken away from fans and communities.

English football has badly lost its way. It's worth all involved in the myriad disputes remembering that football should be about those striding out of the dressing-room, not those heading into the courtroom.

Heaven knows what the Manchester City case will cost in legal representation. On both sides. When the dust finally settles on this lengthy case, and ongoing expensive PSR disputes elsewhere, the Premier League and its constituent clubs have to agree some form of truce on legal battles, especially on time involved which inevitably adds to the lawyers’ bill.

The 20 clubs and the executive are stronger together. All the in-fighting within the Premier League comes at a price, to unity, to the authority and credibility of the league and to funds which could be more constructively spent elsewhere. The Premier League is a magnificent sporting competition, and the community departments do transformative work, but bad blood between members, and some with the executive, damages it. Just stop it.

The astonishing amount spent on lawyers provides another reason why there is widespread support for a regulator to bring sanity to proceedings. And that will be led by a top legal mind, too. Lawyers are increasingly taking over English football when the game should be about players and supporters, and when £50m could do so much good for the game and the community. #EPL #EFL

[Calcio England @CalcioEngland]

If a look could say “Bellend”, this is it

Courtesy of Mr Ruud Gullit

[No Score Draws ✍️ (Alex & Sian - BOOK OUT NOW!) @CheapPanini]

SOUTHAMPTON won the playoffs and the only sane response to this was for us to stay up till 4am drawing them all so strap in for some wonky likenesses ❤️

Standby for 24 extremely sketchy Saints

RTs appreciated by not understoood x

[Chris Hughes @Hughesy1010]

@DaryllPhillips Congratulations mate

[Chris Hughes @Hughesy1010]

@pedro_pele26 great work, mate 👍

[Chris Hughes @Hughesy1010]

https://t.co/6jpqZzQVee

[Chris Hughes @Hughesy1010]

@tcthept @nmaddo @mattletiss7 What's your favourite opposition shirt that you ever got @nmaddo?

[Chris Hughes @Hughesy1010]

@tcthept @nmaddo @mattletiss7 Absolute collectors item

[Chris Hughes @Hughesy1010]

@nmaddo @tcthept @mattletiss7 World Cup and Euros winner! Great shirt to have

[Chris Hughes @Hughesy1010]

@tcthept @nmaddo @mattletiss7 Vialli, Di Canio, Roberto Baggio...some quality players there

[Chris Hughes @Hughesy1010]

@vets_ford UTFP 💜

[Chris Hughes @Hughesy1010]

@JonWalters19 @Nike @adidas Any size 10 nikes would be ideal please 👍

[Colden Common FC @ColdenCommonFC]

📢 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧

We are proud to confirm that leading our Development Team this season will be Pedro 'Pelè' Monteiro and Ruben Pinto.

Full article here 👇

https://t.co/ZXZwWeoy8O

🐎 🐎 🐎