By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Ethan Haley’s effervescent smile was the first thing to catch Aaron Jones’s eye, just as it catches the eye of all who meet the 12-year-old from downtown Rochester.
“You just bring me a lot of joy,” Jones told him on a Zoom call recently. “Any time I’m having a bad day, I think about you and that smile, think, ‘What would Ethan be doing right now? He’d be smiling.'”
The running back will be thinking of Ethan on Sunday, when he wears cleats Haley designed against the Philadelphia Eagles as part of the NFL’s “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign.
Jones partnered with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer and Northwestern Mutual, inviting hundreds of children battling cancer to submit their best designs. Ethan’s mother Kristen, knowing his passion for art and drawing, encouraged him to enter.
Ethan’s design, which features a colorful checkerboard pattern in the back, the pediatric cancer ribbon and the Alex’s Lemonade Stand logo on the sides and bright orange, red and yellow colors near the front, was deemed the winner. Designer Marvin Baroota, who owns SoLegit Customs and designs NFLers’ custom cleats weekly during the season, produced the cleats and even surprised Ethan with a pair.
The moment Jones hopped on a Zoom call and personally announced Ethan as the winner was a special moment in the household. His parents, Kristen and Nate, had known two weeks before the call with the Packers but couldn’t tell anyone, so they couldn’t wait.
“(The call was) super exciting,” Ethan recalled. “I couldn’t believe I had won. I had never won a contest before this.”
“He told me he had never won anything,” Jones said, “and I was like, wow. How many people take winning for granted, and there’s kids out there who have never won? Just to be able to give him his first victory did a lot for me.”
Ethan’s positivity, even during an adverse bout with ependymoma, makes his first victory even more meaningful.
Ethan started showing symptoms of cancer in March 2018, struggling to stay on his feet and experiencing dizziness while lying on his side. He was sleeping more than usual and frequently vomiting, prompting his parents to take him to multiple specialists before an MRI revealed a brain tumor.
The arduous weeks and months that followed included surgery to remove the tumor as well as 30 rounds of radiation. The treatment, at the time, was working; his MRIs remained clear until May 2019. But then he started suffering from extreme back pain, and doctors found new tumors in his spine.
Ethan underwent a second surgery and has been through over 50 rounds of radiation since then. While a November 2019 MRI was completely clear of tumors, doctors discovered four new brain tumors in February, and surgery was no longer an option.
Ethan’s condition was stable until August, when an MRI showed the tumors were growing in his spine and head and 12 more rounds of radiation were necessary. He is currently in a wheelchair and is slowly losing function, receiving comfort care through CompassionNet.
“He left a lifelong, lasting impression on me, a kid who’s gone through so much at such a young age,” Jones remarked. “He didn’t even see me on the Zoom at first, he was just talking with his mom and dad and someone else who was interviewing him, and he still had a smile. I came on and he had that same smile.
“Just to see him, like I said, he’s been through so much but to keep that smile on his face, that just shows me that no matter what I’m going through, there’s always brighter days. Keep that smile on your face and keep pushing ahead. That’s what he does. And he keeps God first, and that’s everything.”
Ethan roots for the Kansas City Chiefs and considers Patrick Mahomes his favorite player, but Jones may have influenced his fandom by sending him a jersey along with an identical pair of cleats. Among Ethan’s other sports loyalties: the New York Yankees (he met Yankees star Aaron Judge at Yankee Stadium last summer on his Make-A-Wish trip) and the St. Bonaventure Bonnies basketball team (Ethan’s uncle Ryan Ferguson attended Bona and teaches finance there).
Jones has rushed for 235 yards and caught 15 passes over the last four games as the Packers, NFC North Division leaders, have recorded three wins in that span. Ethan and his family are eagerly awaiting Jones’s performance in his new cleats.
All the while, Kristen, Nate and Ethan’s four siblings will continue to find inspiration in his bravery and the joy he brings their family.
“Ethan’s positivity and joy brings our family together,” Kristen said earlier this week. “He is the peacekeeper of our family and is always looking for the light in the dark moments.
“This is what his cleat design conveys: going from darkness to light.”
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