If you were in the Charlotte area Tuesday to experience a record-high 99-degree day, there’s a decent chance you uttered a complaint or two.
Not Bruce DeHaven. He loved it. Actually, the Carolina Panthers special teams coordinator couldn’t get outside fast enough.
“Mo hotter, mo better. Only two things I’ve never done, been too hot or had too much fun. Let ‘er burn,” DeHaven said while standing in the midday sun, moments after the Panthers wrapped up their opening day of minicamp.
Before practice, the 66-year-old followed his usual routine, walking onto the field before nearly every player or coach. Before Tuesday, it was a walk he feared he’d never make again.About seven weeks ago, he visited his doctor for a routine physical. On his way out, he brought up something that was bothering him. Tests revealed it was cancer.
“From what I heard going out of the doctor’s office down here I wasn’t sure I was ever going to be back,” DeHaven recalled. “It’s turned out where I’m able to get back here. I’m so thankful. I look at life a whole lot different.”
After the diagnoses, DeHaven took a medical leave of absence, but not before calling in a favor. He asked Russ Purnell, a good friend and a retired special teams coordinator, if he’d consider un-retiring.
When a new batch of players ran onto the field in early May for rookie minicamp, Purnell was there. And in a way, so was DeHaven.
“I don’t know if I would have been able to have done all of this if it hadn’t been that I knew there was somebody here that was going to come in and do a great job. I trusted him to take these guys in the same direction I was going to take them, and that’s exactly what he did. I hope that I could’ve coached these guys as well as he has the last six weeks,” DeHaven said.
“I think I’m still the coordinator, but it might as well be co-coordinators. We’re in this thing together. That’s the great thing about it being Russ. I trust him implicitly.”
While Purnell was filling in the past six weeks, DeHaven began his battle in Buffalo, where he lives for most of the year. His treatments, which don’t include chemotherapy, will continue through the season. Doctors want to see him at least once a month, but with some creative scheduling, he hopes he won’t miss much time on the job. And while it may have been uncomfortably hot for most of us, DeHaven was more than content in his office outside.
“It was great. I love doing this. I love coaching. I love these guys,” DeHaven said.
“There’s lots of people that have a lot tougher deal than I do in terms of side effects they get out of this. It’s a serious illness, but I’ve got good doctors, and I think I’ve got a good attitude about it, so we’re hoping for the best.”
