Bengals Re-Sign Devon Still to Practice Squad for His Daughter's Fight

Bleacher Report~

Devon Still, a defensive tackle for the Bengals, contemplated stepping away from football for a year after his four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer. But when faced with the decision of staying on the team for his daughter to be able to use the NFL’s health insurance policy, he decided to stay.

Earlier this month, the Bengals came to him with some news: He wasn’t going to make the squad. Instead, they promised to cut him and resign him to the practice squad after clearing waivers so that he could focus on his family and hopefully eventually be able to focus on football again.

On Thursday, Still appeared on SportsCenter to talk about the Bengals’ decision, calling it one of the best situations the Bengals could have put him in. “It was definitely a long 24 hours,” he said of the time he had to wait to clear waivers. “Personally I was hoping that I was able to sign back with the Bengals for a lot of reasons. One being that they stuck with me since June 2 when this all came out about my daughter, they’ve been very helpful with just talking to me, just being there for me when I needed someone to talk to …”

The Bengals drafted the third-year lineman out of college. And while the NFL is a business and has its moments where players are very much treated like it is, understanding that sometimes being an organization that cares about its players is worth more than having an extra lineman in the organization just in case.

NFL health insurance, according to Still, covers 100% of cost for his daughter’s treatment, which will be in the seven figures.

“It was very vital for me to have that for this fight,” he said.

*Classy move Bengals*