Sunday, September 21, 2003

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Merril Hoge called a pal in Pittsburgh the other day to tell him something. "Listen," Hoge said on the telephone to Charlie Lavalle, "I have bad news."

Hoge quickly understood he chose the wrong words. Cancer patients do not call friends to tell them they have bad news.

"I don't have bad news," Hoge corrected himself. "I just have news.

"There's no such thing as bad news anymore, it's just news. My day is so much better by me just saying that."

Hoge wanted to tell Lavalle, who runs the Caring Foundation here, that his work as a broadcaster for ESPN would prevent him from coming to Pittsburgh tomorrow for a meeting of the charity and to play in the Steelers Alumni Golf Classic at Diamond Run. The event benefits the Pittsburgh Vision Services, whose chairman of the board is Chuck Noll.

As it turns out, Hoge will be able to attend both, which isn't the best news he has to pass out these days. Tests this summer showed he is cancer-free after six rounds of chemotherapy spaced over four months. He discovered on Valentine's Day he had stage two non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which can be a deadly disease if it advances to stages three or four.

"I had the scan July 2 and it was absolutely perfect," Hoge said with an understanding there will be future tests. "The doctor said my body responded in unbelievable, miraculous fashion. All blood levels, urine, were back to normal in a month. There are no effects whatsoever. It's a monumental victory, my friend."

Dr. Stanley Marks, a world-renowned oncologist at UPMC, handled Hoge's treatment. Dr. James Bradley, the Steelers' team physician, ordered tests that discovered the cancer after Hoge complained of a minor ache.

So there was Hoge, 38, last Friday night and Sunday morning, co-hosting the popular EA Sports Matchup Show on ESPN with Ron Jaworski and Suzy Kolber. He sported a nicely cropped head of blond hair, the sign of another victory. It beat the self-described Elmer Fudd look he had on ESPN during the April draft while he was in the midst of chemotherapy treatments.

"I had my first, full official haircut last Monday," Hoge said. "It's back. I had about half an inch cut off. That was a monumental day. My hair's actually curlier, thicker than it was. I have a great formula for getting hair back, but I doubt anyone would want to go through it to get it."

Before the draft, Hoge boasted that he felt great and had continued to play basketball even after taking early chemo treatments. That did not last long.

Said Hoge, "You've heard the term 'day to day?' With chemo, you're hour to hour because your body undergoes such a violent change. You feel like throwing up, you're cold, you feel like your body is numbed with nasty toxins. You're feeling like you're going to drop to your knees. It's constant for eight days after you get it. It's a war. It's amazing how fast three weeks go."

Hoge had six treatments, one every three weeks.

"You never get up, you don't take weekends off. It's always there, always in your face. That can be mentally challenging as well as physically challenging.

"I was blessed, I was never frustrated by it, never let it consume me. I always said I'd find a way. I found a way to beat it, I found a way to destroy it, I found a way to overcome it and I found a way to deal with it.

"Everything's terrific now. Now it's about monitoring a few things, occasionally. I think it's important to feed your mind and body the outcome. I fed myself the outcome every day."

Last week, Hoge spent his usual hours in the dark rooms of NFL Films in the Philadelphia suburb of Mount Laurel, N.J. He studies tapes from games, and he and Jaworski pick ones to dissect on their show, the only TV program permitted to use NFL team game tapes.

On the show, Hoge remains an unabashed fan of the Steelers, but it has not eroded his objectivity. He paused from watching a tape Thursday to do an interview.

"I'm looking at film of the Cincinnati Bengals," Hoge said. "If I were the Bengals, I'd try to get the Steelers' nickel on the field as much as possible."

Hoge isn't a fan of the Steelers' new nickel defense, and he believes the Bengals will present a more formidable foe for them today than others might think.

He should know. He's triumphing over one of the toughest opponents of all.

"I had a guy come up to me and he said, 'My wife had the same thing you had; she was 50-some years old. I want you to know she'll be 82 tomorrow.' I can't tell you how much energy that gave me. He said, 'You'll be just like her.'

"I will. I'll be 80, 90. The lid's back, I'm healthy, I'm watching football. This can't be any better."

Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.

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