The Buffalo Bills linebacker, and NFL sack leader, Lorenzo Alexander shares why he Billieves.
From buffalobills.com, Blood makes you related. Family, is defined by love. For Bills LB Lorenzo Alexander, he doesn’t have to look far to find it.
Back in his hometown of Oakland, Calif., “Taco Tuesday” is a staple in the Alexander household, and his “Aunt” Theresa is a regular. Theresa Butler has been “Aunt Theresa” since the 3rd grade, when Alexander met a classmate who would become one of his closest lifelong friends.
A bubbly go-getter with a dynamic personality, Theresa faced a huge challenge three years ago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. “She kept her diagnosis close to the vest,” said Alexander. “She’s the type of person that always wants to take care of everybody else.”
“When people are doing that, when their lives are on the line and they’re worrying about how other people are going to feel or treat them, in my eyes, it’s very commendable and inspiring,” said Alexander.
Nearly one in eight women in the United States (about 12%) will develop breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. For men, the risk is approximately one in 1,000.
As a husband and father of two daughters, those statistics are huge. “It’s in the back of your mind especially when you’ve dealt with it and gone through it as a family,” said Alexander. “It could easily be my wife or my daughters. It’s something that some mothers and women can neglect because they’re worrying about their husbands, their children and families.”
As the League’s “A Crucial Catch” program raises awareness through the month of October, Alexander’s focus is on more than wearing the color pink. “I want people, especially my wife, to take the necessary steps, to go to the doctor, do self-exams and get mammograms,” Alexander explained.
The women in Alexander and his teammates’ lives “they are the rocks in our household,” said Alexander. “They keep everything going strong.”
So as Alexander, his teammates and counterparts across the league wear pink on the field throughout the month of October, many of them, like Alexander, will be playing with someone in mind like Aunt Theresa.