John Kuhn was running late for his grooming appointment Tuesday morning at Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin, but when he finally arrived to get his beard shaved for prostate cancer awareness, his message to other men was simple: don’t delay. In fact, be early.
The popular Packers fullback’s personal punctuality notwithstanding – he was slowed by traffic but still greeted with the familiar "Kuuuuhhnnn" cheer upon his arrival at the Clinical Cancer Center’s second-floor atrium – Kuhn joined with former Green Bay defensive lineman Santana Dotson and Dr. William See, a prostate cancer surgeon with the Froedtert and MCW Cancer Network, for the Green, Gold and Growing public awareness campaign. The three men discussed the program and stressed the importance of screening for prostate cancer.
See spoke first, thanking the prostate cancer support-group members in the audience and providing background information on the disease, which is the most common non-skin cancer among American men. He said the odds of a man being diagnosed with prostate cancer were about one in seven and noted that more than 35,000 men in the United States die from it each year.
"A lot of men are notorious (for), ‘if it don’t hurt, if it ain’t broken, I’m not going to see my doctor, I hate to see the doctor," See said. "The problem with prostate cancer is that if you wait for symptoms, it’s too late. And so, effective treatment is really linked to early detection."
Next, the flannel-clad Kuhn took the podium, speaking from a football player’s perspective about the masculine pathos of avoiding the doctor and echoing See’s calls for men to be proactive in getting tested. He also shared a poignant story from the previous year’s program, when a man went in for the recommended prostate cancer screening and it was discovered he had a heart disease that required a triple bypass, which he successfully underwent.
Kuhn said he grew out his bushy red beard – "extra thick this time" – because he was looking forward to the "new look." He and Dotson have a competition to see who can grow their beard thickest by the end of November, which is the national men’s health awareness month.
Dotson, 45, who cracked that the 33-year-old Kuhn "was in diapers when I first grew out mine, so there’s no way I’m going to let him beat me," said part of the campaign was challenging both men and women -- " sometimes we love to be nagged because we love our ladies" -- to talk about men’s health and prostate cancer prevention.
Afterward, the two Super Bowl champions, along with a prostate cancer survivor named Frank, took to the barber chairs to let Groom for Men hairdressers shear their facial hair. Kuhn thought his teammates might ask "Who’s the new guy?" and agreed his face would probably be a little bit colder this month.
Kuhn may have been a late arrival, but he, Dotson (getting shaved in the photo above), See and the rest of the Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Network were quite clear about the importance of early screening and not allowing prostate cancer detection and potential treatment to be a close shave.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
