Chiefs' Berry has finished cancer treatment, now awaiting results
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Eric Berry has battled his tail off for three rounds. Then five.
All that's left now is the judges' scorecard.
"He's going to get his big end-of-school exam here," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Tuesday of Berry, the Kansas City safety reportedly undergoing the final phase of treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"So he's been through all the treatments, and now the doctor's going to sit down with him and go over exactly what the results of that are."
The 26-year-old Berry was diagnosed last December with lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, discovered after the Georgia native complained of discomfort in his chest after a Nov. 20 loss at Oakland.
Berry was placed on the NFL's non-football illness list and has remained in football limbo -- life limbo, too -- ever since, save for sporadic updates from Reid, general manager John Dorsey or media in either Berry's hometown of Atlanta, where he had been receiving treatment, or around the University of Tennessee, his alma mater.
The defensive back last month turned up at the Volunteers' Family Day at Knoxville, Tenn., to watch brothers Elliott and Evan, both on the current UT squad.
Evan later told the Nashville Tennessean that "to be honest, I really don't see (the lymphoma) affecting him."
For his part, Reid remains encouraged about Berry's prognosis, at least from a health standpoint.
And while the team hasn't given any hints as to the safety's future, it sounds as if closure -- at least closure where cancer is concerned -- is coming sooner rather than later.
"So we don't have that (final result); Eric doesn't have it quite yet," Reid said Tuesday. "But everything up to this point has been very positive from the doctor and from Eric."
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
