A top college football quarterback has made the remarkable admission that he played through the entire 2025 season while battling a cancer that doctors had labeled ‘unfavorable’ after it had spread through his chest.
Jack Curtis, the starter for DIII Carleton College, underwent chemotherapy on Mondays and was able to play just days later, even finishing the season with school records and the MIAC Offensive Player of the Year award.
Speaking to former NFL coach-turned-Barstool personality Jon Gruden this week, Curtis opened up on how he first found out about the cancer spreading through his body.
‘So, I also play baseball,’ he began. ‘Last spring we wrapped up the baseball season and I started getting some pains in my chest. My throwing arm was a little weaker than normal, which I didn’t like at all. Fastball lost five miles an hour.
‘So I went and saw some doctors over the summer and got diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. They even used the word “unfavorable” because the cancer had spread throughout my entire chest cavity.
‘Over this summer I started chemo. Called the team, let them know what was going on – that I might not be playing this year. And obviously all of them were football second at that point, which is really good to hear for me.
Carleton College quarterback Jack Curtis played the 2025 season while battling cancer
‘Because you know, being their quarterback, the leader of this team, it felt like I was letting them down. But they just wanted me to get healthy. After two cycles of the chemo, I was beating it well enough that the doctors let me try and play football.
‘When I brought that up, they said I was crazy, and never had a cancer patient go through chemo [while playing]. Nor do I know one. The most famous obviously, Eric Berry in the NFL – he took a year off, came back, had a great season. What it looked like for me was chemo on Mondays and game day on Saturday.’
Curtis went on to explain that he wasn’t able to practice for five weeks as he recovered from his treatments earlier in the week, instead just taking to the field on Saturdays for game day.
Curtis (second right) poses with some of his Carleton College Knights teammates
Curtis broke school records and has even been dominated for DIII player of the season
‘That’s unbelievable… you’re unbelievable, man,’ Gruden told him on the podcast appearance. ‘I’ve never heard anything like this.’
The Carleton College Knights went 6-4 for the season, finishing third in the Minnesota standings.
Just before Christmas, Curtis was also named as a finalist for the Gagliardi Trophy, which honors the most outstanding DIII football player.
