The football community is mourning a tragic loss.
Dean Wells, a former linebacker who played in the NFL for nearly a decade, died on April 3 after a two-year battle with cancer, according to his former team the Carolina Panthers. He was 54.
Wells was first drafted into the NFL by the Seattle Seahawks in 1993, shortly after enjoying a successful college football career at the University of Kentucky. He played with the Seahawks for five seasons before signing with the Carolina Panthers as a free agent.
After spending three seasons with the team, the athlete retired from the sport altogether in 2001.
In early 2023, Wells was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and immediately began rounds of chemotherapy, according to Kentucky sports publication KSR. His cancer went into remission following months of the treatment, but returned by the fall.
“Show me who to tackle and I can do that,” Wells told the outlet in April 2024. “This is in the doctors’ hands and it’s in God’s hands.”
Amid his health struggles, Wells acknowledged the role that optimism played in his treatments. In fact, his wife Lisa’s first words upon learning his diagnosis were: “It’s OK. We got this.”
“There’s mental toughness that comes into it,” he continued. “You have to have a positive attitude that you can beat it. I’ve done everything that I can with that. It’s like the chemo either works or it doesn’t. You just don’t have a lot of control over it. You wish you had more control.”
He added, “Generally speaking, my mother was a very positive person and I think she rubbed off on me in that regard. Not that I’m not scared and everything else you would expect with the possibility of dying, but you still gotta find a way to enjoy every day and stay positive.”
Wells is survived by Lisa and their two sons.
