Cancer and courage: Jericho QB Brandt Morgan's return an inspiration

Brandt Morgan was at home, sitting in geometry class via Zoom, when he heard the sound of bad news coming. His mom was weeping in her room.

He had gone for a biopsy because of a lump on his neck. This was his sophomore year at Jericho High School. He was a quarterback looking forward to playing a season that had been pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic after he had started as a freshman for the junior varsity.

He shut his laptop, walked into the other room and saw what Abby Morgan had written.

“Lymphoma cancer.”

How does a 15-year-old kid even begin to process that? He had non-Hodgkin’s T-cell lymphoma.

“Everything just, like, stopped for that second I saw that,” he said. “You see ‘cancer’ written down on a notepad. You don’t know what to think, say or anything.”

It was Nov. 23, 2020. The ordeal was about to begin — hearing the notion he wouldn’t be able to play the sport he loved anymore; living on and off in Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park for eight months or so; the transfusions; the spinal taps; the chemotherapy; the nausea; the hair loss; the appendicitis; the infections such as listeria; the chemo-caused neuropathy that forced him to basically have to relearn how to walk.

Now it was Sept. 9, 2022. The quarterback for the combined Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK/Jericho varsity football team  was injured early in the opener against East Meadow.

Enter Morgan.

The 5-8, 150-pound senior had returned to play briefly in two games as a junior. But now he was the No. 1 quarterback, a 17-year-old still receiving chemo orally each night and by infusion once a month, but in remission and cancer free, dripping with inspiration for everyone to see. Two games later, he threw his first touchdown pass. He hasn’t relinquished the position.

Morgan threw for one touchdown and ran for another in Saturday's 30-14 loss at Uniondale. His team is now 0-5. But standing behind the center is life's victory formation for him.

“Just strapping up my laces, walking on the field knowing I’m the starting quarterback — every single day I fought so hard just to get to the point that I’m at today,” Morgan said.

“My footwork from last year to today, I can’t even explain how much my footwork has changed. Every single day, it was after school. It was the gym, then quarterback training, gym, quarterback training, ever since the junior season ended. Every single day. I made that my goal.

“Now just being able to strap up, honestly, just being on the field again with people I care about, that’s a win itself.”

The neuropathy hit early in 2021. Walking became a struggle, as did standing. He couldn’t feel the ground. One time, he fell down the stairs. Another time, he fell backwards into the tub.

But he attended the Jericho JV’s opener that March, walking with braces on his legs. Now he had his inspiration — seeing his teammates playing.

“In my head, I had to get in that mindset like, ‘I’m going to wake up today and it’s going to be one step; the next day it’s going to be two steps, three steps,’ ” Morgan said.

He also wanted to lift weights, even just one pound, to “keep myself doing something so I can get back on the field that junior season.”  

Then came another setback — listeria. He returned to the hospital for a month that June and July. His room there became a gym of sorts. He worked out, even with an IV attached to a port.

“He had one dream — to play football,” his mother said.

That August, he showed for the start of training camp.

“Running through the cones and doing drills with the quarterbacks, I’m tripping over myself after each step I take,” Morgan said.  

He put in that work to be in a better place for this final season. Coach Brian Gurney said Morgan’s teammates look up to him.

“Just to even be able to step foot on the field, that’s impressive,” Gurney said. “I tell him all the time, ‘What you overcame, a lot of people would have given up.’ "

Back in the halls of Jericho, there’s also respect.

“It just seems like he never lost faith in himself and his ability to get back to where he wanted to be,” athletic director John Mankowich said.

Morgan received a “Heart of a Giant” award from the NFL's Giants, USA Football and the Hospital for Special Surgery last December as an inspirational tri-state area high school athlete who showed courage, a superior work ethic and a love of the game throughout his bout.

“You’re in COVID world and you’re wearing masks and you’re watching doctors coming in and out, and it’s me and him,” said Abby Morgan, a divorced mom of three boys. “He is a fighter. He is a warrior. He’s my rock star.

“He is an inspiration to so many kids to never, never, never give up and keep fighting.”    

He’s a source of hope and comfort for young people in chemotherapy. Morgan talks to them at Cohen. He also developed a “Comeback Kids” website to connect with them. Others contact him via social media.

“I just always remind them that you put your mind to something, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dark it can always get,” Morgan said.

He’s hoping to go into sports management or sports psychology as a profession. His game plan doesn’t include college football. It does include a trip to the medical center on March 23, 2023. Morgan is in maintenance, the final cycle of chemo, which ends that day. He will ring a bell for the occasion.

“Everything is going to hit me at one time, I feel like,” Morgan said. “I couldn’t be more grateful.”