WhoDat!656

Hearing about defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's heave-ho from the New Orleans Saints made me sad. But the reasons had less to do with football and more to do with my son, Paul Morris, now 21, who was diagnosed last summer with Hodgkins lymphoma.

Thanks to Saints cornerback Jabari Greer and A Child's Wish, an organization similar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Paul and I spent a day at Saints training camp in August. That was at the beginning of Paul's treatment, which included 12 grueling rounds of chemo at the Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center at Ochsner.

And of the many fine folks in the Saints organization who spent time with Paul that day, Spagnuolo was a standout. He went out of his way to chat with Paul at length, even though he had his hands full, putting the guys through their paces on that hot day.

A little lagniappe came Wednesday in the form of a phone call from a mysterious number with a Missouri area code.
"Who do I know from Missouri?'' Paul said he thought, after getting the call Wednesday night. He couldn't answer it, because he was at work in his job as a cook at Midway Pizza on Freret Street. Then he looked at a text message he got: It was from Spagnuolo.
They got to chat today, and Paul said Spagnuolo told him he was cleaning out his desk and came across the column I'd written about our day at training camp, and Paul's cell number. So Spagnuolo decided to call Paul to see how he was doing.

Steve Spagnuolo may be leaving the New Orleans Saints, but he's also leaving a smile on young cancer survivor's face | NOLA.com

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