08-07-2025
Former NFL Player Chris Scott Texted All His Friends About His Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, Inspired by His 'Prayer Warrior' Wife Debra
Chris Scott, a onetime player for the Indianapolis Colts, realized more people than he knew had also faced prostate cancer
He wants to draw attention to the health issue to encourage others to get screened
His wife Debra has helped him as a caregiver and "prayer warrior"When retired NFL player Chris Scott was diagnosed with prostate cancer, his wife called everyone they knew and asked them to start praying.
"My wife, she's a prayer warrior," says Chris Scott, 63, of Berea, Ohio. "She called everybody."
His wife's outreach inspired him to also start texting his own friends, and he was surprised to hear that many of them, too, had fought prostate cancer. Now Scott shares his story to encourage other men to talk about prostate cancer, and to encourage one another to be proactive in their health and get their PSA checked.
Chris Scott was a defensive end who played at Purdue, before playing three seasons with the Indianapolis Colts. A knee injury forced him to retire.
He and his now-wife Debra Scott, 61, a retired day care worker, met at Bible study; she was a 26-year-old single mom, and he was a 28-year-old single dad. They became very close friends.
He opened her fridge one day and saw it was empty, so he went to the grocery store and fully stocked her refrigerator and freezer. When he noticed she was cold, he bought her a warm winter coat. 'Chris is a very generous man,' she says. 'Chris always has protected me, always. He has shielded me from so many things that I would've had to deal with myself, but I didn't have to. He's just really a good husband and a great father." He still puts gasoline in her car.
The couple are very active in their church and constantly together. "People say it all the time. If I see Chris, I see Debra right behind him," she says.
In 2019, Chris had a comprehensive health exam at the Cleveland Clinic via The Trust, a program for former professional football players which provides access to the the Cleveland Clinic's executive health program. Every five years, Chris spends three days and two nights having a series of health tests.
He weighed 365 pounds and doctors told him he needed to lose weight. They were "very concerned" about high blood pressure and heart disease, Chris says.
Three years later, in 2022, he ran into a friend he played high school football with. 'He was all lean and mean, I said, 'Man, what did you do?''
His friend shared the details of his keto diet, and so Chris and his wife Debra went on the keto diet together. 'I said, 'Okay, I'll do it with you,'' she says. 'We do everything together.'
They cut down their sugar, and threw away the pasta in their pantry.
When Chris Scott returned to the Cleveland Clinic in January 2024 for his scheduled testing, he had lost 50 pounds, which "made all of the difference as far as [my] health is concerned,' he says.
Though most of hs numbers looked so much better, he recalled, they were concerned about Chris's PSA levels. They made a urologist appointment for him that week, where they did a biopsy.
The next day, the doctor told him all 12 samples had cancer.
'It felt like a death sentence,' Chris says.
Chris's father had died of prostate cancer.
'I was anxious and very nervous,' Debra says. 'I just saw death. I said, 'Oh he's dying. He's going to die.' "
Urologist Dr. Urma Lengu assured Debra that wasn't going to happen.
'She was an amazing woman,' Debra says. 'She says 'Mrs. Scott, this is not a death sentence. It will be okay.''
When they left her office, Debra first called her older sister, whose husband survived prostate cancer, with the same treatment Chris' doctor was recommending, and who helped Debra think positively. Her sister "was that quiet person in the storm" Debra says.
Then she called everyone else she knew and asked them to pray.
'It helped me,' Chris says — because after his wife told her friends, he started telling his. He texted his friends on his Purdue Football Player Alumni text chain, and other players reached out and told them they also had prostate cancer and they shared their stories and helped him make decisions and research his doctors.
He had surgery to remove his prostate on April 11, 2024.
'I was on pins and needles the whole time,' Debra says. 'My faith is strong, but when you're not praying for another person, you're praying for your own life, it looks a little different.'
Doctors determined his prostate cancer was Stage 3. After the surgery, he was in recovery. But then Debra received a text that he was moved to the ICU.
Because of his sleep apnea, he was having trouble coming out of anesthesia. When she reached his hospital room he was gasping for air.
"He got scared. So he panicked. When I got into the room, this big man of mine, this 6'5", over 200-lb. football player of mine is in tears and stretching his hand out for me saying, 'Please just come hug me and pray with me,' I lose it. ... [but] I had to stay really calm. By the time I left, he was relaxed.'
The couple says they are 'thankful' and 'so grateful" for what has come since.
'He was able to just get the right timing for every doctor. Everything went the right way for us to be able him to come out cancer free,' Debra says.
Chris now tells all the men in his life, including his 40-year-old son, to check their PSA levels.
Even his own father didn't talk about his prostate cancer. Chris says he read about it on his father's death certificate.
'Men keep everything a secret," he says. "My dad never told us he had prostate cancer, he kept it to himself."
Chris now tells all the men in his life, including his 40-year-old son, to check their PSA levels.
'When I started talking about my prostate cancer, it seemed like every man out of the woodwork started talking about it. I had to be the voice to say something.'
Debra spent her career caring for others, but being her husband's caregiver was difficult. She took time off from her part-time job at the Hallmark store to care for her husband, and it was an adjustment for both of them.
'I knew that it would be a journey for the both of us because he resorts to [acting like a] small child and I had to actually just get over it,' Debra says. 'It stretched our marriage vows big time because he was just so irritable.'
His pain made it difficult for him to receive her help. 'He was very uncomfortable, very not a happy person,' she remembers, but she reminded herself 'he's on the other side of this.'
And while she did focus on her gratitude for his health, she had to ask him to be considerate of her feelings while he healed. 'I had to tell him, 'Listen, I know you're unhappy right now and I know you're not comfortable, but you have to be nicer to me and you have to speak to me with some level of intimacy or be empathetic towards me because I'm the only one here.'
Debra worked in daycares for 28 years," so to her, "diapers are no big thing,' she says. But catheters, sometimes with blood in them, was different. 'That was the worst,' she says. 'It was gross. This is above diaper changing. This was just my husband in pain. If I would touch around the area where the catheter was at, he would just explode."
When it was removed after a few weeks, "he was just a better guy,' she says. His appetite returned — she made him omelettes and Jell-O —and he was able to start walking. And his positive attitude returned too.
'He's not over here worrying about the next step. That's why our marriage is so good, because he's such a positive man," Debra says. "I mean, I would've been on the floor with all this, but he just constantly reassured me that every step was getting better.'
His previous weight loss helped his recovery, he says: "It gave me that endurance." He was much better within two or three months. Now he's a certified personal trainer. He teaches seniors chair exercise classes at their church. His wife makes everyone lunch. They also run the non-profit Chris founded, Boys 2 Men, together, and finally took the road trip Debra dreamed of in now advocating for all his friends to get their PSA levels checked and try to catch prostate cancer as early as possible.
'He showed a lot of other men, it's okay to talk about your cancer,' Debra says.
'A lot of men suffer in silence and they don't have to,' Chris says.
Read the original article on People
