Piccolo award hits close to home for Bears' Cunningham

The naming of Benny Cunningham as the veteran winner of the Brian Piccolo Award was especially poignant when the Bears' running back revealed he was an eighth grader when he lost his father to cancer.

The award is given annually to a Bears veteran and a rookie who best exemplify the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and sense of humor that characterized Piccolo, the former Bears running back. Tarik Cohen is this year's rookie recipient.

Piccolo was in his fourth season when a chest x-ray revealed a malignancy. Several months later, on June 16, 1970, he died at age 26 from embryonal cell carcinoma.

"There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about my father and the impact that he had on my life," Cunningham said. "There were a lot of points where I hated football. Hated the idea of football, didn't want to play football, and didn't understand why he was so hard on me. With the life I have now, the blessings I've been able to receive, there's no way that I can't think, 'This is what you were doing it for. This is why you were hard on me, making me practice certain ways or making me take it seriously at such a young age.'

"The things that I've been able to accomplish on and off the field, the relationships, the experiences, the places that I've been able to travel, are all because of football. There's no way that I cannot think about him every day."

Following Piccolo's death, the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund was established and proceeds were sent to the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York for research on embryonal cell carcinoma. At the time Piccolo died, the disease was 100 percent fatal, but today the cure rate is more than 95 percent.

With that victory, proceeds from the Piccolo fund now benefit breast cancer research at Rush Medical Center and support Clearbrook Center for the developmentally disabled in Arlington Heights.

Cohen is one of several younger players who have been mentored by Cunningham, a five-year veteran, who has opened his home this offseason to another young Bears running back, Taquan Mizzell. Cohen, who has already become well known for his wit and humor, credits Cunningham for helping him adjust.

"Benny Cunningham really brought my true side out of me," Cohen said. "When you get comfortable around somebody, you start acting like yourself, and I was really comfortable around him so everybody else got to witness that.

"It's good to know that cracking jokes on all my teammates is paying off now. It's just wonderful having that Piccolo name on the award. I've seen the movie (Brian's Song), heard great stories about him, and I feel like that would have been one of my role models."

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