Bruce DeHaven: A Super Bowl Story Worth Watching
By Johnny Carey, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- During the two-week stretch leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, national media is constantly mired in a frenzy to uncover the sexiest, most scandalous stories. Every talking head on television has some strong opinion on the game, while the same off the field stories are beaten to death.
Have you heard Peyton Manning might retire after the game? Have you heard Cam Newton likes to dance in the end zone? Have you heard some people don't like that?
While the 12's are busy writing letters to Cam Newton for tearing down a flag (nay, a community, apparently), Super Bowl coverage becomes more trite with each passing day.
Yes, there is absolutely a long list of reasons to root for the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50. Cam Newton is awesome (sorry, 12s), their Luke Kuechly-led defense is nasty, and sure, the dab is still cool. Everyone knows this by now, though, as there hasn't been a waking moment over the last two weeks in which we haven't heard about these things.
Amongst all of the recycling of Cam Newton and Peyton Manning stories, however, there is one man who has fallen largely under the radar: Panthers special teams coach Bruce DeHaven.
In May of 2015, DeHaven received the horrific news that he had prostate cancer, a terminal diagnosis. The 66-year-old was told that he might have three to five years to live, which was a shock to a man who has always stayed in good physical shape. In the face of that kind of news, the narrative is always that football doesn't really matter. After all, it is just a game.
Not so much for Bruce DeHaven. Alongside his family, football is DeHaven's passion in life, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let cancer take away his passion. Residing in Buffalo in the offseason, DeHaven began to undergo treatment for his terminal cancer. To him, it wasn't even a question as to whether or not he would continue coaching. To be in the NFL has been all DeHaven has ever wanted.
"From life on the farm to the NFL … I mean, are you kidding me?" DeHaven said to Sports Illustrated's Peter King. "Coaching in the Super Bowl? With Hall of Fame coaches? Marv Levy, Bill Parcells. My gosh, I understand what Lou Gehrig said. I honestly feel it. I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
DeHaven made the decision to keep doing what he loved most in spite of his diagnosis.
"I hope I can beat it," he told SI. "I hope I can outlast it. I'm so busy that I don't even think of it unless someone brings it up. But I think I figured that, if I quit, 20 years from now I'd ask myself, 'Why'd you walk away from a job you love doing so much?'"
"Quit" is certainly not a word that will be associated with DeHaven, as a man who loves his job so much has managed to balance a year of cancer treatment with a 15-1 regular season and a trip to the Super Bowl. Miraculously, he's only missed one meeting throughout the entire season as he continues to maintain a positive attitude about his cancer.
DeHaven has coached special teams in the National Football League since 1987 for five different organizations. His greatest success came as special teams coordinator for the Buffalo Bills, where he coached from 1987-1999, including four consecutive Super Bowl berths in the early 1990s. Unfortunately for DeHaven, who is widely regarded as one of the best special teams coaches ever, his teams lost all four Super Bowls, leaving his quest for a championship unfulfilled.
After the Tennessee Titans crushed their dreams via the "Music City Miracle" in 1999, Buffalo fired DeHaven, making him a scapegoat for one of the most controversial plays in NFL history. He spent three years in San Francisco, four in Dallas, and three in Seattle before returning to Buffalo for three more seasons. Once again, he was let go by Buffalo, and found himself on Ron Rivera's staff in Carolina at the start of the 2013 season.
DeHaven has truly become an embodiment of a "never quit" attitude; one that fits perfectly with Carolina's team motto, "Keep Pounding."
The Panthers' "Keep Pounding" motto originated 12 years ago, during the team's run towards Super Bowl XXXVIII. Then -assistant coach Sam Mills delivered those words to the team, as he underwent a battle with cancer of his own.
He told the team, "I'm a fighter. I kept pounding. You're fighters, too. Keep pounding!"
While Mills tragically passed away in 2005, his message remains stronger than ever in the Carolina locker room, embodied by DeHaven.
During the most turbulent year of his life, DeHaven has kept pounding. Now all that's left is to win the Super Bowl.
If this story is a relatively quiet one, it is probably in part a result of DeHaven's desire to keep the team first heading into the Super Bowl. In fact, he thinks it's been talked about too much.
"That story has been written about too much early in the season," DeHaven said back in training camp to SI. "I don't think that any of these [players] care a thing about that. Half of them probably forgot that I was ever sick."
While his players definitely have not forgotten about his situation, they also do not see him as a cancer patient. They see him as a man and coach who cares immensely about his players, and they love him back with the same passion he has shown them.
Cam Newton noted prior to the season just how much DeHaven relishes in coaching special teams for the Carolina Panthers.
"It's not saying he loves coaching us," Newton said. "It's screaming it. That's the kind of passion coach has for this team."
Hopefully DeHaven's story will be one being talked about and recycled on the major networks in the coming days. Maybe just for one day everyone can stop worrying about whether or not Cam Newton dances too much in the end zone, and instead can pay attention to something far more worthwhile. Bruce DeHaven's story is one of courage, perseverance and toughness, and it's not over yet.
It's a story worth talking about over and over again.
His ride in the NFL has undoubtedly been a wild one. It has also been one without a Super Bowl title.
But then again, lots of people haven't won a Super Bowl. That's just how football works. Should we all really be rooting for a team because of their special teams coach?
Absolutely.
Johnny Carey is a senior at Boston College. You can find him on Twitter @JohnnyHeights.
