ajflutie

Dear Bills Fans, AJflutie is and always will be my 14 year old son. He left us on January 5th, 2008, a victim of childhood cancer. He was and is a huge Bills fan. Below is my post from his CarePage today, its a kind of blog that parents share with other parents about their kids and situations. If you could take 5 minutes of your time to read and help, AJ would be very appreciative, he always said thanks...... (here's the short version - help cure childhood cancer - sign the petition below) http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/CureChildhoodCancer PS - #1 - if you sign, please ID yourself as a Bills fan and #2 - there used to be a post with links to all the NFL teams message boards but its gone, does anyone have that? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I guess I was dreaming. AJs Care Page did not exist. I had never heard of Care Pages or Caring Bridge, they were shut down. The past year did not happen. AJ was at practice or messing around with his buddies. Like usual, he wouldn't answer his cell. Wondering where the hell he was. But I woke up...damn. And, after much thought, and some positive reinforcement, decided to try to Do Something. Don't know if it's the right or wrong or best thing. God knows I should do this (www.stbaldricks.org), or run (www.relayforlife.org) or help wishes come true (www.wish.org). But I want to try this. I want to try this because I know each of this virtual family who read this will help. These kids NEED each of you to help. The concept is simple: Create a petition to all the major TV newsmagazines urging them to devote time to childhood cancer Create, and on the show promote, a book by the parents describing our children, the lessons they taught us and how they impacted those around them And all book proceeds go to CureSearch, to find a cure My role is easy, I facilitate. I surround myself with smart people - you. I start this drive to challenge 20/20, Dateline, 60 Minutes and others to produce the show. I collect and FedEx a million signatures to them. Idealist and cynical, mostly, I still believe in people, and I know that WE can get the attention our kids deserve. Once we start I know that WE can create the book. WE can raise funds for a cure, it just might be our dollar that does it. So, Step One. A petition. Thanks for all the great input. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/CureChildhoodCancer A goal of 1 million signatures sounds like a lot huh? But there are over 500 visitors to AJ's site. They each get 20 others, who get 10 others who get 5 others who get 2 others. That's one million. Or, we could just put it up on the ColemanScott Care Page and wait a week! Here is what I ask each of you to do: Read the petition. If you agree, sign. If you agree, update your Care Page or Caring Bridge site (or, if you're "different", blog....Kyle) with the link, AND pass it on to 20 friends and family. Ask them to pass on to 20 others and on and on. E-mail it around at work; post it on message boards, online forums and news groups. Consider adding a link to your e-mail signature. If you run/manage a website, we can provide the code for an object, which will give a permanent link to the petition. Leave me a message. I need volunteers to contact Care Pages, Caring Bridge, Make-A-Wish, St. Baldricks, and others to ask that they link the petition on their sites. Pls leave a private message with your email. I got Cure Search. 4 months? 8333 a day? Unrealistic? What's real? Reach for the stars right? The second order of business is to create a book. I've dreamed of this, but not this way. This is similar to the cookbooks that patients publish, where friends/other patients send recipes and the funds go to the family. Except ours is stories of how our children changed the world and our funds go to CureSearch. So, who has experience, knowledge and more importantly, a desire to help with this? Leave a message. I envision 1-2 page stories, they come from the parents of cancer kids, in other words, YOU. Not about the battle vs. cancer, but how our kids impacted the nurses, doctors, teachers, friends, or people they didn't even know. How our kids caused them to make a life decision and just know it was the right thing to do, to better the world somehow. You write em and we just collect and em and publish. Easy huh? Ok, get to work. You don't know me, but I mean it. Remember, you get what you give. AJs Dad AJs story is at www.carepages.com, register and visit AJsspace

Catch 22 - Heller Stranger from a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love - Heinlein The Once and Future King - TH White The Stand - King Enders Game - Card Shibumi - Trevanian Lord of the Rings - Tolkien Travels with Charley and Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck

Some months ago, I posted about my son AJ who was fighting cancer. AJ was 14 when we lost him in January. ajflutie is really his screen name, he loved Flutie, who was, like AJ, a little guy at the time. He was a huge Bills, Sabres and Yankee fan. And a great little athlete. And I love and miss him so. I am writing to simply expose as many people as I can to the world of childhood cancer. It is the number 1 killer disease of children. And I hate it. I ask you all to look at three things; 1 - a link to a slide show that my niece put together for her college class on childhood cancer; http://keep3.sjfc.edu/students/amr06221/e-...swish/Swish.htm 2 - a link to my daughters Relay for Life page, where she is raising money to fight cancer; http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayFor...;s_tafId=121488 3 - read a speech I was honored to give at the kick off of a charitable foundation in Houston, TX, joining the Houston soccer community together to raise money for TX Childrens Hospital. The two soccer players I mention play for the Houston Dynamo, who won the MLS cup for the second year in a row. Stuart is a 22 year old from Scotland who will be on the US Olympic team this year we hope. This is the speech I gave.... Good morning. My name is AJ’s Dad. That’s how you’re known here, your kids name, and then Mom or Dad. You see the doctors and nurses here, like everywhere, focus on the patient, and they know his or her name. The difference is that here, unfortunately, all the patients are children. After awhile you come to realize that being addressed that way reminds you of who you are and what your job is. Each of the parents I met here knew who they were and what their job was. Each of the parents I met here had their priorities re-thought and their life’s turned upside down from this horrible disease called cancer. I guess our story is not all that remarkable, although of course we think our AJ was. It is just one story of more than 12,000 stories every year, that’s 33 a day, all about childhood cancer. All remarkable in their own way. Kelsie, Sam, Chase, Brett, Chloe, Coleman, Krista, Christopher, Tyler, I could go on. Sadly, AJ cannot be here with us today physically, he left us on January 5th, 2008. I know he is here today in so many other ways. He fought a long hard battle against a rare and aggressive cancer, something called Non-Hodgkin’s Burkitt’s Lymphoma. AJ was a normal, strong, healthy 14 year old getting ready to move to back to North Carolina and start high school. He was anxious about it, leaving his buddies, worried that North Carolina football programs would not rank as high as Texas football programs. He started getting sick just before our house hunting trip up there, and when we got back, on Father’s Day 2007, he was admitted to TCH. Within hours we were told he had cancer. He would have to undergo a lengthy treatment program with chemo and radiation, would have to stop sports, would lose his hair and would be very sick from getting better. It was all unreal, we were just a normal family, we had no idea that this whole world here even existed, no idea of the number of kids on 9, no idea of what lay ahead. But we knew how it would end up, AJ would be better, back to his normal self, maybe have to take a year off from football, but no big deal, he had done that before and come back. And, best of all, the words we heard that day were “if you have to be here this one isn’t bad”. Of course, as it turns out no one wants to be here, and no one wants any of them. AJ truly was a remarkable young man. He was born during a blizzard in March 1993, and to this day I remember him not crying and breathing right after being born, and the doctor and nurses rushing around in the delivery room. But after he took that first breath, boy did he breath deep the rest of his life. He lived life. He was always smiling. He loved people, music, playing the guitar, animals, movies, good books. He thought. He had fun; he made people laugh, did the right things, did everything at 110%, and was simply just a joy to be around. He was the love of our lives. To unabashedly steal from his sister Katelyn, “AJ, you would say something to make me laugh or cry or think and I would just stare at you thinking how did you even think of that?” To keep stealing his best buddy Pablo said, “AJ’s character was like the sun: brilliant, golden, and able to light up the whole world”. Jimmy V would be proud of the way AJ lived. Of course he loved sports. He made it all look so easy. The poor kid had to have me coach him in soccer for a few years, and that was his initiation to competition. And he thrived on it. He played for a select soccer team in North Carolina in 2000 when he was like 8 years old, and they won the State Championship and he got a championship gold medal. When we came down here, he started to play for the Classics. He was a play-up that first year, telling me it’s not the size of the dog in the fight it’s the size of the fight in the dog. After a few years of that he went on to basketball and hockey for a couple years, playing on championship teams in both, and scoring the winning goal in sudden death OT in the championship game for his hockey team one year. From there, we move on to 7th grade and…….finally, after throwing him a million passes in the front yard, football. Like his life, his football career was like a bright shooting star. His school has retired his jersey. He was a fast little wide receiver/cornerback and his first year he had touchdowns in his last four games (that’s like scoring 6 goals in each game to you soccer guys). The next year, during preseason practice, on the first day of wearing cleats he caught his spikes in a drill and tore his ACL. But as a testament to his work ethic, within 6 months of surgery for the torn ACL, he came back to run track and was awarded Track Athlete of the Year. He had re-habbed, trained and fought hard to come back. And I knew that his comeback from cancer would be no less amazing. But this disease does not fight fair. It does not let you beat it in a race, it does not let you tackle it and smash it to the ground. It cheats and lies. Throughout his battle with cancer AJ fought. He actually looked forward to going in for chemo and getting sick because he knew that’s what he had to do to win, and he was determined he would win. We were here for nearly 2 months straight before we got to leave the first time, and he had every complication you could imagine. But the kid never complained! And, I think if you go around this room and ask his doctors and nurses, they will tell you that every time, no matter what they did to him, how they poked and prodded him, he said thank you. Thank you Jalane, thank you KP, thank you Pat, thank you Dr. Baxter, thank you Dr. Dryer. Today, on behalf of AJ and his family, I have the chance to say thank you to you all, we know that each of you, and everyone here, did everything they could for our Age. Initially, everything looked great. In July, after only two months of treatment, a scan showed no visible tumor! We only had one more round to go, another 3 weeks. But, again, cancer lied, it was still there. It came back. We tried another chemo, and then another, but nothing seemed to work. AJ knew, I suppose better than we did, what was happening. He knew what his creatin level should be; he knew what his ANC count was. But even then, deep down, we never doubted the outcome. Sure we were scared to death, but this just doesn’t happen to an ordinary family, with two kids, a dog and a cat and a mortgage. But it turns out it does. In November, we started the last chemo regime, and the doctors told us that the chances were very slim that this would work. I would like to thank Pat, Mital, Jalane of TCH, and Connie Prutting my beloved sister-in-law, please stand up each of you, for helping both AJ and us through that difficult day and time. We then started this surreal stretch of coming and going and radiation and finally, hospice. I will never forget him asking me, “Dad, what’s hospice?” Can you imagine? We were able to have, what AJ described as, the best Christmas ever. He loved it. Friends arranged for a white Christmas, snow all over the front yard. I can’t even begin to tell you the meaning of the things he had us get for each other. Because he knew. And we did too. We talked about it, and he was at peace. Again, never complaining, saying only “you have to play the hand you’re dealt Dad” and “I think God needs a right hand man”. Us smiling at each other and shaking our heads as I looked into those blue eyes that Pablo described by saying “just glancing at them could make you hear the ocean”. AJ remained brilliant and elegant to the end. Then, early Saturday morning, January 5th, with us at his side, AJ went to be with our God. To paraphrase Samuel Clemens, who also lost a child, “to describe our pain would be to bankrupt all the languages of all the worlds”. We love him and miss him so. So how do these kids do this? How do they face the day to day fear, the boredom, the pain and the unknown? Well, I have another story to tell you. And it shows how some amazing people devote themselves to helping these amazing kids. First, we have to go back. I am not sure how we met Dr. Pat Thompson frankly, he wasn’t our doctor. But Pat started hanging out with us and became our buddy. He was fighting a losing battle, not against cancer, but against switching AJ from football back to soccer. But we didn’t tell him, he was so sincere and kind. Pat even arranged for a couple soccer players to visit AJ. So that’s when Mr. Craig Wiabel and Mr. Stuart Holden show up one day in AJs room. These two guys razzed AJ about playing football, about his favorite teams, why isn’t he playing soccer and on and on. And AJ just loved it, giving em both some razzing back. He loved Craig’s story of how he was “retired” in the Xbox FIFA game. He sat wide eyed at Stuart’s story of, well let’s just say an incident. It wasn’t two famous soccer players; it was two good guys befriending someone who needed a lift. Two guys giving their time, energy and love to a kid who they didn’t even know. Now, as it turns out, they saw something in AJ and did come to know him. Craig and Stuart both took the time to call or email AJ whenever they could. And each time, AJ’s smile would brighten. AJ’s spirits would soar. Thank you both for your kindness, caring and compassion. Around that time we, like most of Houston, followed the Dynamo on the run to the cup. And celebrated when they beat New England in the championship game. So this happened around mid-November. We were home and hoping and praying that the last chemo regime would be working. But we ended up back at TCH a couple weeks or so before Christmas for some palliative (another of those words you learn) radiation. It was the week Stuart Holden came around and showed the kids the MLS Championship Cup. Stuart was wearing a doctor’s jacket. And just beaming. He was so proud. AJ just lite up when he came in with that thing. It was huge and heavy! I think Stuart and AJ both just marveled at the fact that they were actually holding a professional sport championship cup. I always knew AJ would hold one. He held it up high and kissed it. And then Stuart had to continue on his rounds of making kids feel better. But before he left, he put the cup aside and said, “AJ I want to give you this”. This, this was his championship gold medal that he received on the podium after the 2007 MLS championship game. He placed the medal around AJ’s neck and AJ made me so proud again. He said “Stuart I can’t accept this”. But Stuart would not relent and finally AJ just said “thank you so much”. We then heard how Stuart broke his medal and had to run to his Mom in the stands for a safety pin to fix it so it would look good for all the pictures after the game. So much like something AJ would have to do with his Mom. We laughed and cried. And finally we were left in the room with the championship medal, marveling at it and Stuart both. So now how do you say thank you for something like that? Write a card? Send an email? Well, AJ would probably not like what I figured out to do, but only because he was humble. But one of AJ’s favorite sayings was “you only get what you give” and so, in true AJ spirit………, Stuart, if you would come up here please……..I would like to present you with AJ’s State Championship Gold Medal for Soccer from the year 2000. Please accept this in AJ’s honor. And when you are hurting out there, think of AJ and all these kids and how hard they fight, and keep fighting. When you are tired out there, think of AJ and all these kids, and never give up. From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of my wife Christi, my daughter Katelyn and my beloved son AJ, thank you man. So, that’s a look at AJ, at this place, at the people who work here, and some of the people who give so freely of themselves to brighten these kid’s days. I could not think of any adjectives to put before any of those nouns. Because there are none that adequately describe any of them. We are all here today to help stop these kinds of stories. Nick’s Team, with your support, will aid in our war against this cheater, against this liar that these kids fight every day. To all the media here today, please, please spread the word. Please, if we end up helping just one child, one family, the world will be a better place. I would like to thank Jeff, Jodie, Nick and Pat for thinking of us today and giving AJ the honor of having his story told. Thank you for allowing me to share this with you today, I am AJ’s Dad.

Thanks Nick, AJ was my son, I'm his Dad. Bob. There are too many stories like this out there man. Do everything you can to increase awareness, the doc's will take care of Mira. And the kid's never complain. They are amazing. We got to know so many of them. And AJ never once complained, never failed to say thanks Dr. whoeever. Even when we went home and there was nothing more to do, this 14 year old boy taught me things. Never whined, just said thats the way is it Dad, you have to play the cards you are dealt. And so much more. He was wise beyond his years. Take care and tell Mira's Mom and Dad to hang in there.....

I too am glad your wife shaved her head, and wish we all would. My prayers and thoughts go out to you and your family, and I know that Mira will fight the fight. From personal experience, I know that cancer kids are amazing individuals. Some months ago I posted a couple places on here about my son AJ, and his battle with cancer. I got some great responses from you guys, and a variety of thoughtful cards, shirts etc. Thanks to you all. Well unfortunately, AJ left us on Jan 5, 2008. AJ was a normal, strong, healthy 14 year old getting ready to move to back to North Carolina and start high school. He was anxious about it, leaving his buddies, worried that North Carolina football programs would not rank as high as Texas football programs. He started getting sick just before our house hunting trip up there, and when we got back, on Fathers Day 2007, he was admitted to TX Childrens Hospital. AJ truly was a remarkable young man. He was born during a blizzard in March 1993, and to this day I remember him not crying and breathing right after being born, and the doctor and nurses rushing around in the delivery room. But after he took that first breath, boy did he breath deep the rest of his life. He lived life. He was always smiling. He loved people, music, playing the guitar, animals, movies, good books. He thought. He had fun, he made people laugh, he did the right things, competed, and was simply just a joy to be around. He was the love of our lifes. To unabashedly steal from his sister Katelyn, AJ, you would say something to make me laugh or cry or think and I would just stare at you thinking how did you even think of that?†To keep stealing his best buddy Pablo said, AJs character was like the sun: brilliant, golden, and able to light up the whole world. Jimmy V would be proud of the way AJ lived. Of course he loved sports. He made it look so easy. The poor kid had to have me coach him in soccer for a few years, and that was his initiation to competition. And he thrived on it. He played for a select soccer team in North Carolina in 2000 when he was like 8 years old, and they won the State Championship and he got a gold medal. When we moved to TX and it became clear that I had used up my soccer knowledge, he started to play for the Classics. He was a play-up that first year, telling me its not the size of the dog in the fight its the size of the fight in the dog. After a few years of that he went on to basketball and hockey for a couple years, playing on championship teams in both, and scoring the winning goal in sudden death OT in the championship game for his hockey team one year. From there, we move on to 7th grade and......finally, after throwing him a million passes in the front yard, football. Like his life, his football career was like a bright shooting star. He was a fast little wide receiver and his first year he had touchdowns in his last four games. The next year, during preseason practice, on the first day of wearing cleats he caught his spikes in a drill and tore his ACL. But as a testament to his work ethic, within 6 months of surgery for the torn ACL, he came back to run track and was awarded Track Athlete of the Year. He had re-habbed, trained and fought hard to come back. And I knew that his comeback from cancer would be no less amazing. But this disease does not fight fair. It does not let you beat it in a race, it does not let you tackle it and smash it to the ground. It cheats and lies. The reason I go on is because, like you all, 9 months ago I did not know that this world even exists. I didn't know that 12,000 CHILDREN each year fight this disease. 33 per day are told. Although survival rates are going up, it is still the leading cause of death from disease for our children. And, to be honest, I lost my Dad to cancer at 67, but that is so much easier to accept, after he lead his life, saw his grandkids, etc. And the funding for Childhood Cancer is so small compared to adult research, it is a crime. Congress is making a big deal right now of a Childhood Cancer bill which will provide $150 million over 5 years, $30 mil per year, for research. That my friends, is about 2 hours of war cost and grossly inadequate. Not to be political on the right/wrong of the war, please dont take that from the statement. It is just that the word needs to go out. The largest childhood cancer research group is CureSearch. They are funded by donations and grants, and in turn fund research for a cure. They get $ from MLB and the NHL, but not the NFL. My goal is to get a small foundation going, AJ's Warriors, and challenge the NFL to match whatever we can raise. Any contacts you guys may have within either the Bills, players, or NFL would be appreciated. AJFlutie was his pick for our name on this board, because he loved the little guy when he was 7 or whatever. Had his jersey and wore it all the time. And we never posted much, but we were huge fans. I will never forget the last game we watched together. Still debating if we liked Edwards or not, AJ said he seems so bland. He was a great kid and huge Bills fan. He is my best friend. I miss him so much AJ's Dad http://www.stbaldricks.org/kids/kid_info.html?KidID=1063

Thank you for that, sometimes fiction is stranger than truth.

just seems like too many RBs and CBs to me.......

The interviewer and editor did a wonderful job of tightening up Willis quotes, there is no way those are direct quotes.

well I'm not too sure about "light it up". Here in Houston the man is hated more than Saddam! There is no way you can put it all on his OL. He is permanently scared if you ask me, and is best at hitting the RB for 5 yd. Please let him go to Miami!

new least fav - Chris Brown lol

I say we take Reggie Bush first then Haloti Ngata

dont you just love it when the professional athletes on your team are written about and described as NOT ATHLETIC!!!!!!!!

"He's a strong inside runner who can spill to the outside," said one AFC personnel director. "He has power, size and he's tough. He catches the ball well, and he can pass block. Baltimore likes to run the ball, and I'm sure they will give it to him a lot. And that's good because this is someone who gets better the more he does it. I think they got the back they needed." I figure this was what our personnel director must have told Balt. personnel director

a nice article on our new Thurman......aka Fred Jackson http://www.nfleurope.com/teams/story/RHE/9398452

OMG do we miss Charlie here in Houston.........we loved him as GM and damn it all we lost him to CBS NFL Today

yeah..i run through this all the time when brady and manning meet, but seeing as manning has never really won the big game and brady has 3 rings, you gotta go brady.

Sure, we all like to hate em. And its been easy. Seem like they get all the calls, all the breaks, they are what we want to be (winners), etc. But I have to say that I think Brady played a crappy game but probably one of his best when it counted if that makes sense. 3 ints but clutch when he needed to be. And he always looks sooo damn calm. You gotta respect him I think. On the other hand, SD looked like fools. Rivers flopping on the NE offside play was foul. LT snubbing congratulations from NE players and running off seems child like. Just saying, NE deserved it, sure SD blew chances but they had help. And no matter what, as keepthefaith posts elsewhere, NE doesnt have drug users, criminals or other losers to my knowledge. QUOTE(keepthefaith @ Jan 14 2007, 11:03 PM) * The negative sentiment toward the Patriots is a little much. The Bills really aspire to be just like them. Good characters guys, play like a team and stay out of jail, court and the tabloids. Maintain a high level of play year over year and don't overpay your free agents. Draft well. You have to admire what they do. Here's to hoping the Bills can crack that code.

I tend to agree with you. I mean as much as I hate em like most of the rest of us, you really have to admire what they accomplished today. Brady had a bad game but gets clutch at the right time. Defense bends doesnt break. No stupid penalties. I mean they were not hateable today. Rivers flopping on the other hand, and LT after the game whatever his problem was.....I lost some respect for them.

no doubt you are correct, just and observation from him...about numbers because he has absolutely no insight into any real matters of substance regarding the situation....just like most of them (announcers/reporters in general). The usual, well, I dont know anything about this, so what can I say that is supported by fact (numbers) yet will seem like I know about the future. It is simply staggering the idiotic statements from announcers....

but its not so dont

I got Cinn........and yet I answered, no, I don't have trouble with the law (parking tickets)?

I've got the Colts Fins here, who is the announcer just curious

whats interesting there is that Chicago only played 3 top 16 teams all year..wow no wonder they are 13-2

no

so what? you are proud of yourself??