After being diagnosed with leukemia in July of 2022, John Metchie III went through a period of time that only those that had fought his fight can relate to.
Now, full of the wisdom only a person that once wondered if they’d survive to see their next birthday could have, Metchie said it was his trust in the man upstairs that kept his head up to fight.
“You can only rely on your faith in those situations when you're faced with your own mortality,” Metchie said.
Prepared to attack the only way he knew how, Metchie said as he wondered about just living, much less ever playing the game of football again. The only thing he could do was attack it one treatment at a time.
“The best you can really do is just take it day by day and stack brick-by-brick,” Metchie said. “So, you’re not really looking too far down the road when you’re there. The other patients and I, we’re just worried about winning our fight every day.”
While Metchie had an incredible support staff in his new Texans teammates and the organization that drafted him 44th overall in the second round of the 2022 NFL draft, the former Alabama standout said he gained the most strength from those that were fighting similar battles at MD Anderson.
“The majority of people that had a huge impact on me, were people that I met at MD Anderson during that time,” Metchie said. “Whether it was patients, janitorial staff, the nurses that were there with me every night and my doctors, but mainly patients. I think there were definitely a countless number of people that come to mind that really impacted me and gave me a lot.”
Now that Metchie, 23, is back in the fold and has been able to make football a priority in his day-to-day again, he’s preparing to play in his first football game since the SEC Championship game against Georgia on December 4, 2021.
Metchie hauled in six catches for 97 yards that night, including a 13-yard touchdown reception from Bryce Young.
All of that damage was done against the nation's best defense in less than two quarters of play as he was forced to leave because of an ACL tear in the first half.
Alabama went on to win the conference title game over Georgia in convincing fashion, 41-24, but weeks later, in a rematch for the National Championship, the Crimson Tide fell to those same Bulldogs, 33-18. All Metchie could do was look on from the sidelines.
His collegiate career was over.
Little did he know it would be the last game he’d play for more than a year and a half.
In 3 seasons at Alabama, Metchie finished with 155 catches 2,081 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Now, with all of the pain and doubt behind him, he gets to focus on a different kind of fight. The kind of fight that he probably feels more prepared for now than maybe ever before.
“I feel 110%, actually,” Metchie said. “Over the year, I feel better than I did – I feel better now than I ever did in college, and I feel better than I was when I got diagnosed, like before I got diagnosed. I feel 110% for sure.”
The most important thing Metchie said he took away from the people he fought his battle with cancer alongside was to just “show up and fight” and not to take life for granted.
“Regardless of age, size, where you came from, everybody had to wake up and fight every day.”
When the Texans open their preseason next Thursday, August 10 against the Patriots in Foxboro, you can bet if Metchie is active, he won’t just be playing for himself, but for those that he fought alongside, and the ones that continue to wake up and fight every day.
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