Assistant reveals he’s battling cancer
Cancer arrived at the doorstep of the Giants three months ago, when general manager Dave Gettleman revealed he was receiving treatment for lymphoma. Gettleman’s cancer is in remission as he completes his last rounds of chemotherapy.
Cancer knocked again inside the Giants, this time hitting the coaching staff. Thomas McGaughey, the new special teams coordinator, said Thursday he is battling periampullary cancer, which at times has affected his ability to be around the team this summer.
“It’s tough,” McGaughey said. “As a football coach, you don’t think about this stuff. You get up, you do what you do, and live life. I’m not going to let any chemotherapy or cancer or anything else get in the way of what I do. I’m a football coach. I’m a father and a football coach, and that’s what I do. I got to get up every day. Nobody cares. They’re not going to feel sorry for you. It’s get up, go to work, and you got to earn your paycheck.”
McGaughey, 45, is in his second stay with the Giants. He was the team’s assistant
special teams coach from 2007 through 2010 and went on to be a special teams coordinator for the Jets, 49ers and Panthers before returning to the Giants. He said the cancer was revealed during a checkup during the offseason, as he was enduring two bouts of sepsis. An endoscopy detected a mass in the bowl duct. He underwent surgery, and an additional procedure also found cancer in one of his lymph nodes.
He is about to undergo his fifth chemotherapy treatment. To offset the time McGaughey had to miss, the Giants brought back Tom Quinn, who had been the special teams coordinator the past 11 seasons, to assist Anthony Blevins, the assistant special teams coach.
“It’s chemo and I take pills every day,’’ McGaughey said. “So just chemo pills, treatment, chemo pills, then I take a week off.
“I have a couple more treatments left. I had a scan, it was in Hackensack, three weeks ago. It was fine.”
The ordeal is a shared experience, as McGaughey can compare treatment notes with Gettleman.
“We share our chemotherapy stories and talking about the medications and all that stuff,” he said. “We definitely have our conversations. Dave is a great man. It is what it is. We just got to fight through it and keep moving.”
Many of McGaughey’s treatments take place in Houston, where he lives in the offseason with his family.
“He’s been doing a good job,” coach Pat Shurmur said. “We brought in Tom Quinn to back him up on those days that are tough days for him. But T-Mac’s been doing a good job and he’s got our guys ready to play.”