Pat Harrington is shown with his wife, Cori (third from right), and five sons. The sons are (left to right) Jonah, Mark, P.J., Gaelan and Colby. (Mike Silva/The Times)

There is no one in Pat Harrington's family who will forget that day. Neither will members of the Benton High School football team.

That's the day the 57-year-old Harrington learned he had esophageal cancer, a cancer that had left him facing a death sentence.

"I went in for that test and they came out and told me and my wife I had three or four months to live," Harrington said. "It was out of the blue."

Four months from the day of the diagnosis will be Saturday. In football parlance, it will be the day after his sons Mark and Colby Harrington play their first 2008 Louisiana High School Athletic Association football playoff game for undefeated Benton. The Tigers host Minden tonight in a Class 4A first-round game.

The timing did not cross the Harringtons' minds at that point. However, for a family bonded by a love of football, it seems only fitting.

"We're a football family," said Cori Harrington, Pat's wife. "(The diagnosis) was devastating to our family. (Football) has been a wonderful outlet, definitely."

Attend any Benton football game and, chances are, Pat Harrington will be perched near the top of the bleachers with a video camera, documenting a season he wasn't sure he'd see in its entirety.

Read the full article at ShreveportTimes.com...