Spielman Chris - Thats why Im here: the Chris & Stefanie Spielman story

I VE HAD TWO GREAT LOVES IN MY LIFE . O NE WAS MY LOVE FOR MY wife, Stefanie. The other was my passion for my football career.

But my love for Stef vastly trumped the other.

Both loves play a large role in this book, and for that reason it may not look like any other book youve ever read. First, its a book about Stef and my love for her, but especially about her courageous battle against breast cancer, a war she finally lost in November 2009. But its also a book about football, a story about my obsession with the game from an early age through my career as a linebacker in the National Football League. Since the stories really cant be separated in our lives, theyre both here in a combination that some people might think unusual. And so they might ask, So, is it a football book?

The answer is Yes.

Is it a love story, growing stronger in spite of terminal cancer?

The answer is Yes.

An unusual combination? I suppose so. And yet, the book is even more than that. Because at the core, its really a story of faith in God, about how our loving heavenly Father weaves together the extremes of heartbreak and joy to create a new story that helps little boys grow up, grown women find their life purpose, and interested observers find new hope and deeper meaning in their own stories. The truth is, I cant tell you about any of these love stories without pointing to the spiritual foundation that both Stef and I shared. I promise I wont overwhelm you with it, but I have to be honest about how Stef and I weathered the serious challenges that came our way.

From the start, you need to know that Stef never viewed cancer as an unfair or undeserved penalty that took something away from her. She saw it instead as an opportunity to complete a mission that God had designed especially for her.

And from my side of things, I need to tell you how I gradually changed from being a prideful, self-willed professional athlete into becoming a man who has begun to understand and practice what it means to be a humble servant and who, in the process, has become a better and a happier man because of it. For my entire NFL career, and for all the years before it when I devoted everything to reaching my goal of playing professional football, I never once imagined that what would come afterward could be so much more meaningful than any game or any season I ever played.

Id been too wrapped up in trying to win the Super Bowl to think about the future.

I was too wrapped up in trying to be the best to consistently put others first.

But when doctors diagnosed Stef with cancer, everything changed. When a crisis like that levels you, it blasts you out of your comfort zone. Gradually, over what would become a twelve-year battle, Stef and I discovered together that God had shaped us for something much, much bigger than football. So please keep all of that in mind as you read the following pages. When you see a young boy so consumed with football that he can hardly think of anything else; when your jaw drops over a young man who went to all kinds of extremes to improve his game performance; when you are surprised at the all-out energy and focus a man would take to try and gain an edge over his opponents Id ask you to do me a favor.

Go ahead and laugh, cry, or question if you have to. But dont let it stop there. Understand that God has a burning passion for you, too, and that He can use your dreams, your desires, your passions for His plans, not just for yours that He can also do something extraordinary in the lives of those around you.

For most of my life, I saw football as the ultimate destination of my journey. Instead, God used football to continually point me toward something else entirely.

And I believe He wants to do something a lot like that in your life, too.

C HRIS S PIELMAN

October 2011