90 shares SHARE TWEET SMS SEND EMAIL Week two of the NFL season kicks off tonight when the Denver Broncos head into Arrowhead Stadium to take on their division rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs. In her weekly column, bestselling sports romance author Tracy Solheim, a frustrated sports writer, talks about heroes overcoming serious injuries or disabilities on the field and between the pages. Tracy: Football is a tough sport, make no mistake about it. It’s tough on the bodies of the guys who take the field each week. During the season, there are an average of 1,300 injuries sustained by players. That doesn’t include the couple of coaches who’ve been injured when the game spills over onto the sidelines. Or the referee who suffered nine broken ribs and a collapsed lung in Sunday’s game between the Broncos and the Baltimore Ravens. Like I said, it’s a tough sport. Eric Berry of the Kansas City Chiefs during the Sept. 13 game against the Houston Texans. (Photo: Scott Halleran, Getty Images)Returning to the field after a season-ending injury takes hard work and perseverance. Just ask Kansas City safety Eric Berry. Early in the 2011 season, the team’s No. 1 draft pick and rookie Pro Bowler tore his ACL, relegating him to the sidelines for the rest of the year. Berry returned the following fall, stronger and faster, leading the league in stops and landing himself back in the Pro Bowl. His dominance improved in 2013 when he led all safeties in the league with 10 quarterback hurries and 17 pressures — five more than any other safety in the league — earning him Pro Bowl status yet again. But when he took the field with his teammates in the season opener this past Sunday, Berry marked his greatest achievement to date: He returned to the game after beating cancer. Players and fans were stunned last November when the Chiefs announced that their star player — the team’s leader in the locker room and on the field — had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Cue the Brian’s Songtheme, The Hands of Time. This wasn’t a broken bone, a torn ligament or a concussion that most players seem to take in stride these days. This was something else. Something without a game plan for recovery. As with everything else he does, Berry handled his diagnosis with grace and an upbeat attitude. He made it clear to teammates, the league and fans that he would be back. At the time, however, no one had any idea if it were possible for him to return or how long it would take. Berry struggled through treatments like every other cancer patient. “Going through chemo is a monster,” he said during a press conference this past July. “You literally feel like you’re dying every day.” Fast-forward nine months. Berry not only is cancer-free, but he managed to come out of chemotherapy a pound heavier than when he began his treatments. His return to full speed has been deliberately slow, but impressive. After playing a significant portion of Sunday’s game, he told a reporter that “football soreis better than chemo sore.” At 26, Eric Berry has defied the odds and found his way back to the thing that makes him happy: football. Romance readers love a feel-good story about a character who has beaten the physical odds and found their happily ever after, too. There are lots of them out there if you search hard enough. Tessa Dare wrote about a deaf heroine in Three Nights With a Scoundrel. Catherine Andersen has brought several heroines with disabilities to the pages of her books. Joanna Bourne and Teresa Medeiros are but two of many authors who’ve featured blind characters with The Spymaster’s Lady and Yours Until Dawn, respectively. One of my all-time favorites is a vintage Danielle Steel book: Palomino, the story of a female photographer who becomes paralyzed after a fall from a horse and must learn to live — and love — again. Among the more recent offerings is the Bomb Squad series by author Melissa Cutler, featuring rugged, wounded military men who overcome their disabilitiesto play together on an ice hockey team. New Adult author Sarina Bowen’s widely acclaimed book, The Year We Fell Down, also features an ice hockey player — a woman this time — who is critically injured and ends up in a wheelchair. It’s a coming-of-age book like no other. Mia Sheridan has authored a wildly popular book featuring a mute hero called Archer’s Voice. As a breast cancer survivor, author Linda Bradley knows a little of what Eric Berry has faced these past several months. Her debut novel, Maggie’s Way, features a cancer survivor who’s taking on the rest of her life head on. They say write what you know. If Eric Berry were to write the story of his life, he’d probably title it after his new life motto: Fear nothing, attack everything. Tracy Solheim is an avid sports fan who writes football-themed romance for Berkley Sensation. Her latest release is , book four in her Out of Bounds series. See what else she’s up to at . , , , , , ,   90 shares SHARE TWEET SMS SEND EMAIL