‘Put those guys in the dirt’ — Buoyed by his mother’s strength, Kelvin Banks Jr. is doing damage at Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — The doctors told Big Kelvin that his wife wouldn’t make it.

We’re just trying to make her comfortable.

A few months ago, in the spring of this year, Kelvin Banks Sr. heard those words as the mother of his children lay sedated and on a ventilator.

For months, Monica Banks had suffered through this illness, needing a hospital trip every other week for fluids and more fruitless tests. She became incapacitated, mostly lost the ability to speak and walk, in enough pain to virtually be ridden to her bed, her body battling an unseen and mysterious monster.

No one knew why she was sick or how to treat the illness.

These were tough times, especially for her 20-year-old son away at college.

In fact, up until recently, Kelvin Banks Jr. has shied away from discussing his mother’s health, keeping his thoughts tucked away, perhaps suppressing them deep within. Outwardly, he was smiling, happy and starring on the offensive line for the University of Texas.

Inside, he was mad.

“I didn’t let people know how I was feeling,” he says. “I could feel myself being angry at others for something they didn’t do.”

All of this is now in the past.

Texas’ Kelvin Banks Jr. has been the anchor of the offensive line for the past two seasons, during most of which his mom was fighting a life-threatening illness. (Gregory Hodge/Yahoo Sports illustration)

As he sits here within the Texas football facility telling his story publicly for the first time, Monica Banks is on the road to recovery. She attended her first Texas football game last weekend — the season-opening 52-0 win over Colorado State — without any serious health issues for the first time since her son’s freshman season in 2022.

She watched as her son pushed around an inferior opponent. If you don’t know who Kelvin Banks Jr. is, you haven’t been paying enough…

Source link : https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/put-those-guys-in-the-dirt–buoyed-by-his-mothers-strength-kelvin-banks-jr-is-doing-damage-at-texas-125832397.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-09-05 12:58:32

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