Former Cowboys special teams coach trying to win first Super Bowl while battling cancer

Bruce DeHaven doesn’t want sympathy, though prayers and well wishes are welcome. More than anything, though, the Carolina Panthers special teams coach wants a Super Bowl title.

In his 29th season as an NFL special teams coach, DeHaven’s previous four Super Bowl appearances, all with the Buffalo Bills, ended in losses.

“I’ve just had the time of my life being around these players this year,” DeHaven said.

DeHaven, 67, didn’t seem to realize the irony of the sentence.

During a routine physical last year, DeHaven mentioned some symptoms to his doctor.

“It was almost an afterthought: ‘Hey, by the way, this is kind of happening,’ ” said DeHaven, who spent four seasons as the Cowboys special teams coach under Bill Parcells. “I went and started doing some more checkups and here I am.”

It’s been nine months since DeHaven was diagnosed with prostate cancer and given three to five years to live. He took a six-week leave to return to Buffalo for hormone treatments, which he said he still receives every three months.

But DeHaven has missed only one meeting since.

“I was talking with my doctor about what I was going to do,” DeHaven said. “I kept talking about coming back and working. He starts kind of laughing. He looks at my wife and says, ‘I think he wants to work.’ I said, ‘Well, I do, if I can work.’ I can’t imagine anything worse than sitting around the house thinking about this. I mean I think about it all the time, but not like I would if I was just sitting around the house not doing anything.”

DeHaven doesn’t want to talk about his diagnosis. During interviews this week, he repeatedly has stated: “I’m not going to talk about this very much.”

But DeHaven admits the diagnosis has changed him.

“There’s things that used to bother me that just don’t seem that important anymore,” he said. “You get a little different perspective on it. I mean, we all know where it’s going to end someday, but then when all of a sudden numbers are put out there, you go, ‘Whoa, now, I hadn’t kind of figured on that being here quite that quick.’ You look at things differently.”

DeHaven hasn’t changed as a coach.

Though he perfectly defines the team’s “Keep Pounding” motto, DeHaven has never acted sick or wallowed in self-pity. Thus, Panthers players have put DeHaven’s diagnosis in the back of their minds.

“You really don’t think about it, because Bruce brings such a positive energy,” said former TCU standout Colin Jones, one of the Panthers’ core special teams players. “He really doesn’t allow you to think about it. Of course, when you actually think about Bruce, how great it would be for him to get a Super Bowl championship. With what he’s gone through, especially this year, it would be unbelievable for him to bring home that trophy.”

Miller promotes Aggies

Von Miller is a walking, talking billboard for Texas A&M. The Aggies will find no greater salesman than the Denver Broncos linebacker, who has spent the past two days hyping his alma mater.

He has brought up A&M several times in his two interviews, including one about his memory of National Signing Day.

“Deciding to go Texas A&M would have to be the greatest decision I’ve made in my life,” Miller said.

He then turned to a fellow Aggie, smiled and said, “You got that down, right?!”

Miller, who played at DeSoto, was a four-star prospect. He committed to the Aggies before his senior season and remained onboard✔ even after late recruiting efforts by Oklahoma and others.

“I was so sure of my decision,” Miller said. “It wasn’t speculation of do this or do that. I was so sure of my pick for a couple of months out. I was very, very comfortable with what I was doing, and I just remember it being a great day with all my family.”

Miller made 27.5 sacks his final two seasons in College Station, won the 2010 Butkus Award and became the No. 2 overall pick of the Broncos in 2011 behind Cam Newton.

“Potential recruits: I would tell them you want to go to a school where you can go create something, go be a part of something,” Miller said. “If you want to do that, you go to Texas A&M. Gig ’em! You see that? Right before signing day.”

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 9:35 PM with the headline "Former Cowboys special teams coach trying to win first Super Bowl while battling cancer."