Richard Skinner

rskinner@nky.com

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton helped spur the sale of Bengals defensive tackle Devon Still's No. 75 jersey that helped raise almost $1.5 million for pediatric cancer research when he purchased 100 of them on Sept. 10, the second day they were on sale, and Still wants to thank him personally before Sunday's game.

Still said he did get to thank him when the two were on the phone at the same time on the ESPN Radio Mike and Mike morning show, but looking Payton in the eye will mean even more.

"You really can't thank somebody the way you want to or are supposed to over the phone," said Still. "It's something you have to do face to face, so I'm definitely looking forward to meeting him. He's basically what got the ball rolling with everything. A lot of the credit goes to him for what he did. Everyone started following suit after what he did."

Payton purchased the jerseys out of his own pocket at a cost of $10,000 and said Wednesday that the idea simply struck him as the right thing to do.

"Just something that listening to the radio was something I heard," said Payton, who used to coach at Miami (Ohio) and is friendly with Lewis to the point where the Bengals and Saints held some joint practices in 2007. "When I got into work the next day I talked to my assistant, we looked into it and decided that would be a good deal to do. You get to know a group a little closer than other teams and just hearing how they handled it was pretty inspirational. It was really spontaneous and something I thought would be a good gesture."

Still's 4-year-old daughter Leah is battling cancer and underwent a radiation treatment on Wednesday morning in Philadelphia. The treatment was supposed to take place on Tuesday.

"It got pushed back because her white cells had dropped to 381 and they're supposed to be 500 for the radiation," said Devon Still. "Then (Tuesday) the medicine didn't get to Philly in time. When it left Canada, it got stuck in Memphis, so we had to wait another day. She just got it (Wednesday) morning)."

He said he's hoping it's the only radiation treatment she needs and that it eradicates the remaining cancerous cells in her body, which are mostly in her chest and lower extremities. He said test results will be available in the next 4-6 weeks to determine if the treatment was successful and if she needs another one.