BATTLING BACK : Encinitas’ Keith Kartz Didn’t Let Cancer End Football Career

Sure, Denver Bronco offensive lineman Keith Kartz of Encinitas dreamed about being in a Super Bowl and particularly about playing in one near home.

But to keep things in perspective, Kartz’s biggest dream occurred six years ago, when he worried about making it past his 18th year.

Kartz was suffering from stomach cancer. On Dec. 17, 1981, he had a tumor removed. On Dec. 24, he had malignant lymph nodes removed. Three months of chemotherapy treatments followed, and he lost 40 pounds.

But he never lost the risk-taking, carefree spirit that characterized his comeback, which is culminating this week in Super Bowl XXII.

On Tuesday morning of Super Bowl week, Kartz was sitting in the stands of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium wearing stylish sunglasses while basking in the sun.

There weren’t hordes of reporters around Kartz, as there were around quarterback John Elway and the “Three Amigos” receivers. Instead, only a few reporters talked to Kartz, a reserve lineman who probably will play on about 10 goal-line and short-yardage situations against the Washington Redskins on Sunday.

But those on hand heard a heartwarming story.

“It’s hard to describe (this feeling) in words,” Kartz said. “The more I think about it, the more excited I get. The better I feel.

“This whole year has been so good for me. It’s about the best year of my life. A year ago, I was out of work and didn’t know where I was going. Now I’m playing in the Super Bowl and making good money. It’s like a dream. It’s really unbelievable.”

What also is unbelievable is the circuitous route that brought Kartz here.

Once Kartz recovered from cancer, he went on to become All-Pacific 10 as a senior at California. He hoped to play pro football, but he wasn’t drafted, and Seattle cut him as a free agent two years ago.

He was planning to return to school to earn a teaching credential and was working part time in construction when the Broncos called him before this season began. He made the team and solidified his spot by starting and playing well in three strike games.

“He’s a wild and crazy kid,” said Craig Bell, the Rancho Buena Vista High School coach who coached Kartz at San Dieguito. “You would not get through what Keith has gone through unless you have more of that than most. He has more guts than 12 people. He has a lot of courage and mental toughness. He’s one of those kids who can survive the mental strain.”

And a 10-month battle against cancer that was discovered when he was an 18-year-old Cal freshman.

“He took chances of undergoing treatment in which he’d have the best chance of recovery,” said Keith’s mother, Sandra.

Memories of his months at nearby Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla made this Super Bowl moment that much sweeter for Kartz, 24, who was under a lot of strain in the winter of 1981-82.

Kartz had just completed his first year of college football as he headed back home to San Diego for winter break in December.

He was a strong and talented football, basketball and track and field star at San Dieguito who earned a scholarship to Cal, even though he missed his senior season with torn knee ligaments. It appeared Kartz might not get to play major college football, but he said about seven schools showed interest. He chose Cal over Utah because of its academic reputation.

His first few months of college were exciting, but Kartz hadn’t been feeling well during the latter part of the semester, and he had an idea that he was sick. But he had no idea how sick.

“I noticed it (the illness) the summer before, six months earlier,” Kartz said. “I went to the doctor and he told me it was infection, gave me some pills and said it would go away.

“It kind of did. I had so much going on when I first got up to Cal. It’s something I kind of forgot about. Toward the end of the season, every night after practice, I’d be in pain and I was hurting. I’d tell my friends about it. I’d say, ‘God, I’m really hurting.’ They’d say, ‘Ahhh, quit complaining, quit whining.’ That kind of thing. You know, the big macho.”

Kartz spent January, February and March undergoing chemotherapy treatments and going back and forth between his home and Scripps hospital.

“The toughest thing was being laid up and having to stay in bed,” Kartz said. “Not being able to do things. Football was the first thing on my mind. I’ve always been an active guy growing up. That was what I wanted to do. I was tired of laying around in bed and doing all the operations and chemotherapy and all that garbage.

“The whole time I was in bed, I used to tell myself I’d like to go out and play football. I’d like to go out and run. I’d like to go surfing. Those were things I couldn’t do. Now I can do anything I want. It’s a great feeling.”

The more he talked about the past, the more Kartz smiled about the present.

He was overjoyed that those same friends and family who helped him get through his illness would now be his guests at Sunday’s Super Bowl.

“These were my good friends who I went to high school with,” Kartz said. “They were the guys I grew up with. They were all there when I got back and had to go through the ordeal. They’re the same guys who will be at the game rooting us on.”

While he was hospitalized, Kartz also received a visit from former Cal Coach Joe Kapp, who took over the team after Kartz’s freshman year and coached him for three seasons.

“He actually came to visit me down here in the hospital,” Kartz said. “He’d never met me. He probably never figured I’d play. He probably figured I’d be dead. But he came down and said, ‘Get your butt out of bed and come back and be a Bear.’ ”

Kartz’s mother says that even when his condition was most serious, he remained in amazingly good spirits.

“His spirits were better than anyone else’s,” Sandra said. “He was the one who was very ill, but he was the one who helped keep our spirits up.”

When Keith’s younger sister and brother would complain about something at the dinner table, Sandra said Keith used to say, “What the heck do you guys have to complain about?”

That ended the moaning and groaning at the Kartz house.

“If he was somebody else’s kid, I would like him,” Sandra said. “He’s easygoing; he’s a fun person to be around.”

Fun and determined.

Shortly after his treatments ended, Kartz showed up at the weight room at San Dieguito High. Kartz, who is 6-feet 4-inches tall and weighs 270 pounds, had lost 40 pounds and was wearing a hat because he had lost his hair.

“He was white as a ghost,” Bell said. “He must have been under 200 pounds. He looked like a rail. He looked terrible. He’d work out for 20 minutes, go out and throw up and come back to work out.”

Kartz returned to Cal for the spring quarter. He was determined to play football immediately.

“That was a hell of a fight there, trying to get them to let me play football again,” Kartz said. “They told me I couldn’t play. That I wasn’t in good enough shape and I wasn’t healthy and all that. After being laid up for four months, that was about all I thought about the whole time. It was something I had to do.”

At the start of spring conditioning, Kartz was back on the field with his teammates.

“One day we were running 100-yard striders with these guys,” Kartz said. “You had to run 10 100s. We ran them by positions. I was running with all these guys who are linemen, who I usually felt like I should be able to run with and pass. I was the last guy.

“I was 20, 30 yards behind. I felt really stupid because I was so bad and I looked like death. I was so far behind I started to feel sorry for myself and be embarrassed. I remember all my teammates started cheering me on. That meant a lot to me.”

Kartz came back to play his sophomore season, but then he decided to redshirt his third year.

“I put so much into that one year coming back from cancer and did so much, I kind of got burned out,” Kartz said. “It was a self-imposed redshirt because I felt I needed the rest.”

He returned to play his junior and senior years. Media accounts during his senior season led him to believe he would be selected in the NFL draft and possibly be taken early.

He was not drafted.

“I was shocked, and more than anything, I was really upset,” Kartz said. “I got the attitude that right then, damn the NFL. I don’t need it. Obviously, I was wrong. But I felt like they had done me a wrong. But now it’s all in the past.”

Maybe Kartz wasn’t drafted because of his bout with cancer. But he isn’t about to say that, and neither is anybody else.

Kartz had a tryout with the Seahawks before the 1986 season but was cut.

“I started to feel like a failure,” Kartz said. “I went after it and I didn’t make it. The more I thought about it, the worse I felt.”

He returned to Encinitas, worked part time in construction, surfed, played golf and worked with shot putters at San Dieguito High. But before he entered school, the Broncos called.

Kartz survived training camp but was placed on injured reserve with a back problem when the season started. He had yet to play when the players’ strike hit. He was coming off injured reserve, and he decided to cross the picket line.

“It was a real hard decision,” he said. “I felt a loyalty to the guys that were my teammates, but I also felt a loyalty to myself. I promised myself a long time ago that if I ever got a chance to play in the NFL, I’d take that chance.”

He took it and he made the most of it.

In a 30-14 victory over the Los Angeles Raiders in Denver in October, Kartz established himself against all-pro Howie Long, who also had crossed the picket line.

“Going into that game, I was scared to death,” Kartz said. “Howie Long is the epitome of defensive tackles in the NFL. As far as my career, I think the way I played in that game had a lot to do with me being here now.

“We were nose to nose all night. He didn’t get any sacks. I went in just wanting to contain him. Not to let him run rampant, not to let him destroy me. At the end of the game, I felt like I played pretty well.”

The strike ended and Kartz lost his starting job, but he had made an impression on the coaches and had gained confidence that he could compete in the NFL. He also remained a part of a team that was not torn apart by the strike.

“At the end of the strike,” Kartz said, “Coach Dan Reeves and (president) Pat Bowlen told the players, ‘The strike is over. It’s time to forget it. It’s time to go out and win some football games and play ball.’ I really don’t think there’s been any animosity against anybody that crossed the line. It’s been real good here.”

Kartz hopes to continue improving and learning. And there is no doubt that he will continue to appreciate what he has. He has not suffered a recurrence of the cancer.

“There are times when I think about it,” Kartz said. “I have a pain or I’m feeling a little low and I’m laying around. I remember what it was like to be laid up and I remember the promise I made to myself a long time ago, that I really didn’t have any room to complain about anything.

“I was at my low point, and I know what that’s like. I don’t let myself feel sorry for myself anymore. It’s a motivator.”