Wideout Kevin Curtis signed a six-year, $32 million deal with the Eagles in March of 2007, and shortly made good on it.
He caught nine passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns in a single half against the Lions. He became the first player in NFL history to recover his own team's fumble for a touchdown in back-to-back games. He joined Irving Fryar, Fred Barnett and Terrell Owens notching 75 or more receptions in a single season.
He was a bright spot in the Eagles' very bad 75th anniversary year, and it turns out, he was doing all that with a threatening testicular growth that became cancerous this summer.
Curtis was cut by the Eagles in March, after injuries kept him out of 20 of the 32 games that followed his stellar 2007. But when six teams tried to sign him, and more inquired, Curtis told them he wanted to fully rehab a knee injury before re-joining the NFL.
Secretly, he also needed to have a testicle removed and beat cancer (now there's an agenda).
Curtis says a Vikings physician first noticed an "abnormality" during a physical in 2007. He had it checked regularly while with the Eagles, and everything looked fine until a few months ago when doctors discovered it had turned into seminoma -- one of the most curable and unfortunately named of all the cancers.
"This whole time I wasn't positive it was cancer," the 32-year-old told the Deseret News. "There was a slight chance it wasn't. I didn't really believe it. I thought, 'I feel fine.' Then when they told me what it was, it hit me -- wow, cancer."
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He found out Wednesday that a late September surgery went very well.
"Everything looks good," Curtis said. "They caught it early, and there is no sign that it has spread. I'm pretty fortunate, really."
Curtis will go through radiation therapy, but he's decided to wait until after the season. His agent will shortly send a letter informing teams about his illness and availability.
"I don't know for sure what's going to happen," he told the paper. "I'm prepared never to play again if it doesn't work out, but I want to give it a shot."
