How Sports Legends Are Tackling A Taboo Health Crisis Head-On

There’s one night a year when you’ll find University of Alabama coaches surrounded not in red, but in blue. In a sea of navy tables and cerulean lights, the coaches sport blue sneakers for a cause. Former Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive was a uniter, but I think he would even be shocked at the amount of Bama fans in blue. It’s all for the late sports exec’s foundation and the Blue Shoe Ball that raises money for prostate cancer research.

Slive was a numbers guy. (You kind of have to be to run arguably the greatest conference in college athletics.) But a stat you won’t find in any box score is that prostate cancer affects one out of eight men. In black men, it’s one out of six.

The longtime SEC leader started the SEC Network, which nearly doubles the next conference TV channel in viewership, but I think the number he may be most proud of now, if he were still here, would be the more than $5 million raised through his foundation thanks to his vision being carried out by his daughter, Anna, and a whole lot of sports legends who loved Mike.

It’s my fifth year in a row attending the Blue Shoe Ball in Birmingham, Alabama, and my second year hosting this marquee event for cancer research. We have fun, we dress up, we take pictures, and we talk to the coaches and athletes who make our Southern sports world go ’round.

This year I hosted alongside ESPN’s Jay Harris, a prostate cancer survivor, and Greg McElroy, whom I’m sure you heard this past weekend call the Ole Miss-Louisville game if you’re a football fan.

Credit: RDMoore Photography

Standing alongside two household names in sports, who are taking time out of the busiest sports season of the year to raise awareness for a type of cancer men don’t love to talk about, showed me how sports do so much more than entertain. They change lives.

“While we raise money for prostate cancer research and pray for a cure, men, let us do the one thing that costs us absolutely nothing… Let’s talk,” Harris said to a ballroom full of men and women all in blue shoes, representing the color associated with prostate cancer.

Harris, through his own story, taught the crowd at Regions Field how to have a conversation about prostate cancer. It’s not as exciting as prop bets, but it’s way more important.

“Prostate cancer is nothing to be ashamed of … even the side effects from the surgery or radiation is nothing to be ashamed of; erectile dysfunction is nothing to be ashamed of,” Harris said.

His story with prostate cancer is truly a family affair. His dad had it, but that’s about all Harris knew about the cancer at the time — until he got his positive test back. Then he put on his reporter boots and went to work to learn everything about this disease that he came to know killed two of his uncles and some of his cousins.

Credit: RDMoore Photography

Harris said he knows that outcome shouldn’t have happened.

“I shared my story with my younger brother. I said, ‘Please make sure your doctor checks your [prostate-specific antigen levels] the next time you go for your annual physical.’ And he did,” Harris said. “They drew the blood and they tested it and guess what? Prostate cancer. His is not aggressive, and I hope it stays that way.”

That conversation could have saved his younger brother’s life because of early detection.

My friend’s dad also had early detection thanks to former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl and the Mike Slive Foundation setting up testing centers at an Auburn basketball game. One conversation between Mr. Jerry and his wife about getting tested before tip-off changed his life. That early detection helped him fight off the disease.

“Who knew you could effectively fight cancer with a conversation?” Harris asked.

Several men in attendance at the Blue Shoe Ball credited their wives with getting them to the doctor’s office. I get it, we women love to talk! Whether it’s about our kids, spouse, or that high school classmate that we keep tabs on through Facebook, we aren’t afraid to discuss the good and the bad, and that goes for health issues too.

Sure, sometimes we ladies can go over the top talking about our bodily issues, but Harris recognized this as a strength. We do our yearly appointments, as invasive as they are, and tell our friends, and go about our days. Harris said men could learn something from women and mammograms.

“That’s what y’all do every year, and you just go and you talk about it and you just go,” Harris added. “Men, it’s a blood test.”

Credit: RDMoore Photography

I was in awe of Harris’ candor last Thursday. He knows his face is on national television, but he wanted to make his testimony personal.

“Men, anything we have to do below the belt, they might mess with our sexual prowess, and we don’t like it. You know what else messes with your sexual prowess? You being dead. I ain’t never seen a dead person have sex,” Harris said with a laugh.

That’s banter you won’t see on SportsCenter, but the veteran broadcaster made his point clear that men don’t have to die from the most common cancer.

“I’m a prostate cancer survivor, and I want other people to be the same way.”

Jay Harris isn’t scared to have a conversation. Mike Slive wasn’t scared to have a conversation; anyone who got to talk to him at the legendary Salem’s Diner in Homewood knows that much.

What a good reminder during the time of year when most men will spend more time talking in group texts thanks to fantasy football and DraftKings, that talking about prostate cancer may be the one conversation that keeps them in the game.

“Let’s keep talking and keep living,” Harris said.

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