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The letter was one of the first things Mary Shertenlieb saw when she woke up in the morning, yet another in a hospital bed.

Fighting.

It came in the form of an email, out of the blue, to her husband, Rich, who co-hosts the “Toucher and Rich” mornings on 98.5 The Sports Hub, a man the letter’s writer had never met, nor had he ever spoken with in any setting.

He was, in fact, just a prominent stranger offering words of encouragement, himself having also just recently having battled the same form of leukemia that now threatened Mary.

“Don’t for one second start to think about what if?” the letter read. “Your wife has to take this AML [Acute myeloid leukemia, a rare form of cancer that starts in cells that would normally develop into different types of blood cells] head on and believe that she along with the support of family, friends, doctors, and the many more that you will come in contact with, that she will BEAT this and life will return to normal. The most important part of this process will be her FAITH. I asked God to heal me over and over again right before I fell asleep and when I awoke in the morning. There was never a doubt in my mind that I would not beat this terrible disease and return to my team and what I love to do. There are going to be some days that are ok and some that are pretty dark. With your love and support she will get through those tough times and begin to feel like she can handle just about anything that comes her way.”


When Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with AML, three games into his first year with the team in 2012, it came on the heels of taking over for a franchise that had just finished 2-14 the previous season in the “Suck for Luck” campaign. Peyton Manning was gone, replaced by rookie and No. 1 draft pick Andrew Luck, who had helped lead the Colts to a 1-2 mark out of the gate.

Now, this.

It’s the sort of news that could help devastate a team, particularly one starting over in a quest to regain its one-time prominence in the NFL with a new coach and a new quarterback, a 23-year-old kid out of Stanford who happened to be replacing a legend.

But Pagano is becoming a legend of his own in his short time as an NFL head coach, delivering inspiration on and off the football field with an approach that is less Knute Rockne Toughness or Mitch Albom Schmaltz than it is his own. There is honesty in his words, not your typical rah-rah speeches, a genuine sense that he believes what he’s preaching, not the easiest trait considering some of the heavy burdens Pagano has chosen to embark.


Behind Bruce Arians, who took over the head coaching duties in Pagano’s absence in 2012, the Colts went 9-3 and earned a surprising playoff berth, certainly inspired a least a bit by Pagano’s impassioned “I of circumstances” speech he delivered the team in the locker room after a November win over the Miami Dolphins.

In the two years that followed, Pagano’s Colts have made the playoffs with identical 11-5 records, and will also face the New England Patriots for the second-straight postseason, this time in Sunday’s AFC Championship game at Gillette Stadium.

If the stakes weren’t so high for local football fans, the Colts would be a cinch to root for, flying in the face of adversity and fighting on, a message that their coach has delivered in the most earnest, heartfelt, and difficult way possible.

“At first, it seemed like time stood still,” Pagano’s letter to the Shertenliebs continued. “Then as we went through our first round of chemo and all the things that come with that, we started to see the light. Remember, you both don’t have time to ask why, just know that He makes no mistakes and that something good will come out of this in the end. I hate that your wife has to go through this, but I know she is STRONG enough to beat it. I found out, just like you guys will, that we are much stronger than we think we are….Take it one day at a time. Work the process. The process is what we tell our players to do during a game. 60 minutes, all you got, one play at a time, all you got!!”


Pagano, who spent 2008-11 with the Baltimore Ravens as their secondary coach and defensive coordinator, was made aware of Mary’s condition when the NFL Network’s Albert Breer, a frequent guest on “Toucher and Rich,” pulled the coach aside during a visit to Indianapolis. Rich had no idea, and was shocked when he saw Pagano’s name in his inbox.

“As soon as she woke up , I’m like, ‘Mary you’re not going to believe this, but remember that coach that I told you about for the Colts who got AML and was back on the sidelines coaching in a couple weeks? He just sent us an email.’ And so we sat there and read it together and it’s kind of one of those moments where I’m trying to hold back tears.”

Frequent listeners to 98.5 The Sports Hub became well-aware of Mary’s battle with the disease when she was diagnosed in early 2013, leading to an outpouring of support from local media, athletes, and fans.

They printed out the email and hung it on the hospital room wall adjacent to photos of their children, indicative of the power Pagano’s inspirational words could accomplish.

“When she was first diagnosed, the only thing that you wanted to hear were success stories,” Rich said. “It was just such a great gesture for him to have done that. It was about the nicest thing that anybody who has never met me or my wife could ever possibly do.”

Even more recently, the Colts coach sent his condolences to a New Jersey teenager, who lost his father to renal cancer last November. Pagano was responding to a letter that 17-year-old Alex Kormann’s cousin had sent the team. Kormann’s father grew up a Colts fan in Baltimore, ties that stayed with him following the team’s move to Indianapolis, and also passed down to his son.

“I understand that you and I have something in common – a commitment to living in a vision rather than circumstance,” the letter read, according to the Indy Star. “Throughout my personal journey with cancer, I have been fortunate to receive many words of encouragement from great people like you. Now, it’s my turn to return the favor.

“I know that your family has faced some challenging times in the loss of your father, Russ, and it has not been the easiest to push through. Tough days are inevitable in any battle that attempts to challenge our family and spirit. Know that it is in these extremely difficult times that your strength is revealed in greater ways than you will ever imagine.”

For Mary and Rich, the strength that Pagano helped spur in her recovery was of specific note, for here was a guy who could relate directly to what it took to fight this specific type of disease, what it meant to wake up every morning with the same battle looming, being unsure, day-to-day, what the prognosis would be for a complete recovery.

In that regard, it is a much better situation for Mary than it was nearly two years ago. Her hair has grown back from chemotherapy (gone is the Brad Stevens ‘do, replaced by a ‘kick-ass faux-hawk,’ according to her husband), and her numbers are consistently looking good.

Meanwhile, Pagano is one win away from leading the Colts to the Super Bowl, heavy underdogs against the Patriots on Sunday night, but a rising star in the NFL based on his character as much as his initial success in Indianapolis.

“It means this guy is going to be a massive success in the NFL,” Rich said. “If you talk to any of the players, they don’t say anything but great things about Chuck Pagano. The attention to detail, that he’s a class human being, and on top of that, I learned over the past few years that there is somewhat of a bond with people who have gone through and have been diagnosed with cancer.

“If you weren’t someone who’s been humbled by it before, it changes you and makes you, not only more sympathetic to cancer survivors, but the people around you. For him to take the time out of his day and write that letter to someone he had never met just goes to show that this is a man that commands respect, and deserves respect. And that’s probably the No. 1 quality that an NFL coach has to have.”