[ot-caption title=”Berry enters the stadium to an outstanding ovation.  (via, Eric Branch, Google filtered images)”]

Eighty thousand people sent a deafening roar through Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night. This may seem like a standard football crowd cheer, but it was the furthest thing from normal. When Kansas City Chiefs’ safety Eric Berry ran out of the tunnel on Thursday night, the sound from the crowd was the sound of victory, relief, and the end of months of angst. Eric Berry inspired millions around the country.

Eric Berry beat cancer.

This is no light subject. Cancer is a horrible, deadly disease that kills a sickening amount of people all around the world. Earlier in the month, baseball teams everywhere had individual Stand Up 2 Cancer nights, to benefit the fund that raises awareness and support for those affected. Everyone in the stadiums, on and off the field, rose as one and wrote a name on a card of someone battling the disease. Cancer is a disease that must be fought, and Eric Berry beat it.

Berry was diagnosed with Hodgkins-Lymphoma cancer on December 8^th, 2014.

Merely eight months later he was cleared to resume football activities on July 28^th, 2015.

When Berry took the field in Kansas City, he served as a beacon of hope to everyone. To say he should be viewed as a role model for everyone would be an understatement, a hero would suffice. He is said to be the heart and soul of any environment he is placed in.

Berry was drafted fifth overall by the Chiefs in 2010. He immediately assumed the starting role at his position, strong safety. “The Fifth Dimension,” his lifelong nickname on the field, was faced with tough expectations that he certainly lived up to, making the Pro Bowl in his first NFL season. However, adversity struck during his second season when he tore his ACL in a game against the Buffalo Bills. Berry persevered and worked hard through an injury that takes players, destroys their endurance and confidence, and spits them right back out in to the competitive world of professional sports.

This world is one where your job can be lost with the twist of a knee.

Berry flashed his positive and heartwarming attitude and rehabilitated to full health, having a career year in 2013 with three interceptions, two of which he returned for touchdowns. Berry was back in the thick of it, but horrifyingly enough he had yet to play his toughest opponent.

The 2014 season started positively for Berry, but he went down in week two with an ankle injury. As he worked back from the injury, coaches and fans alike noticed that his pace of play had slowed. While it appeared he was just dealing with a lingering ankle injury, Berry noticed something different. He had perpetual chest pains, and was not the same player.

Berry was diagnosed with lymphoma. He left the team to undergo treatment in Atlanta. Coach Andy Reid noted that Berry left with a positive attitude, even when some players were in shock. In a post on the Cheifs’ Team Website, Berry said, “I know my coaches and teammates will hold things down here the rest of the season and until I am back running out of the tunnel at Arrowhead.”

Looking back on Thursday night, Berry’s introduction was the final punch in his bout with cancer. He fulfilled exactly what he said he would and remained positive the whole way through. Berry’s story is one that can connect all sports fans and make everyone say that this is why we love sports. We love sports for moments like this, for people like Eric Berry, and for everyone that Berry represented on Thursday night.

Stuart Scott, long-time favorite ESPN anchor who passed away from cancer in January of 2015, said, “You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live”. Eric Berry did exactly that, and he should serve as a beacon of hope for all affected by cancer, nonetheless a hero for all.

Sources: Bleacher Report, ESPN, Wikipedia, CBS Sports, USA Today