Andy Hoffman, father of the Nebraska Cornhuskers fan and brain cancer patient Jack Hoffman, died on Monday at his home in Atkinson, Nebraska. He was 42 years old.
The Team Jack Foundation announced his death.
Andy Hoffman, a lawyer, spent the last decade of his life raising more than $ 8 million for Team Jack, a fundraising juggernaut to end pediatric brain cancer, only to succumb to brain cancer himself. His diagnosis in July 2020 seemed incomprehensible, that two people in the same family could have brain cancer; that Andy, who ran marathons and worked non-stop, had Glioblastoma multiforme, a rare and very aggressive cancer, with a survival rate of about a year.
“This is a horrible disease,” wrote his wife, Bri, in a Facebook post last week. “Although Andy’s diagnosis was 7 months ago, we still deny that this is happening.”
Hoffman sought a second and third opinion and recovered from two strokes to return home to the Mayo Clinic early last fall. He had two missions: raising as much money as he could for Team Jack and spending every second he had with Bri, Jack and their daughters, Ava and Reese.
They went to cross-country competitions, basketball games and a hunting trip. Andy, an avid Nebraska football fan who put Jack in a Cornhuskers jumpsuit when he was a baby, was able to watch his son play his freshman football season at Atkinson West Holt High. Jack is 15 now and is part of a clinical trial that prevented his tumor from growing. He is an attacker, just like his father was in high school.
When Andy Hoffman’s condition worsened, Jack returned from school and helped take care of his father. In early February 2021, Andy contracted COVID-19 and, according to Bri’s Facebook post, “quickly got a monoclonal antibody fusion and did very well. He recovered and showed no symptoms after about the 5th day . ” But an MRI scan taken shortly after he recovered from COVID-19 revealed that his cancer had spread and Andy’s health deteriorated rapidly.
The family’s battle with cancer began in 2011, when Jack was diagnosed with a cancerous glioma at age 5. The Hoffmans were initially informed that most of the tumor the size of Jack’s golf ball could not be removed, but Andy, after exhaustive research, found a doctor in Boston who was able to extract more than 90% of the tumor.
Before Jack’s surgery, Andy sought out Nebraska in the hope that Jack could find his favorite player, running back Rex Burkhead. Andy did not expect an answer, but Burkhead, now with the New England Patriots, was thankfully obliged to meet them for lunch. He took them on a tour of Memorial Stadium in Lincoln and called them the Friday before Jack’s surgery to offer support.
When the Huskers were losing Ohio State that weekend, Burkhead decided to try to incite some of his teammates, mentioning the boy he had just met.
“Hey, Jack wouldn’t give up,” he said, “so why should we?”
Burkhead took Nebraska to victory, scoring the winning touchdown. He developed a friendship with the Hoffman family, and a year and a half later, the Nebraska coaching staff came up with the idea of putting Jack in the April 2013 spring game.
The nervous little boy with the faltering helmet ran for a 69-yard touchdown in front of 60,000 fans, while Andy rooted for him from the sideline. No one knew that the moment would catch fire, that the race video on YouTube would generate nearly 9 million views and that Jack would win an ESPY award and visit President Barack Obama.
Andy Hoffman took the opportunity to bring Team Jack to the spotlight. He desperately wanted a cure for brain cancer in children, so that other parents would not have to go through what he and Bri went through. He wanted to tell their story. One of his resolutions for the 2020 New Year was to finally write a book; he toiled at night while his family slept and clicked on sending manuscript in the middle of summer.
A few weeks later, he suffered a seizure during a Sunday run, which led him to go to the hospital and discover a white matter in his brain.
But he always tried to remain optimistic. He was signing copies of his book, “Yards After Contact”, throughout the fall and winter. He wanted it to be a best seller.
At the end of an interview with ESPN at the end of last year, while he was at the Mayo Clinic, Hoffman was asked if he had anything to add. When his son was ill, he could research doctors and raise money for cancer research. He could comfort his son and young daughters.
He stopped for a second, unsure of a future he had no control over.
“This is going to sound a little silly,” he said, starting to cry, “but I love my wife and kids more than anything in the world.”