Justin Caine sat in Sparrow Hospital when he was 10-years-old on the first day of fourth grade, diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor hemorrhage, ending his dream of playing organized football.
It was a tumor which had been growing since the day Caine was born, but was undetected by his family until it was too late. Having only a 40 percent chance of survival, Caine lost his ability to walk, talk and eat after surgery.
Caine found a way to graduate from Haslett High School in 2002 and later at Lansing Community College, his prolonged battle with cancer was won.
Even with a degree Caine still found it difficult to find a steady job, so he decided to start his own video productions company in 2008, Good Time Communications, which merged with KiWe Productions a year later.
Having recent success in the workforce, Caine wanted a way to give back to his community, while focusing on the sport that he wasn’t able to play during his childhood.
This sparked the birth of the Battlefield Brawl, which celebrated its sixth annual appearance on Sunday at Marshall Park.
“Hand touch and flag football was kind of an outlet for me,” Caine said. “I thought to myself, I’d love to do something with that, because we have enough golf outings and 5K runs. I wanted to do something unique and different.”
That unique thing was a seven-on-seven football tournament.
Caine, one of the co-founders of the flag football tournament, partnered with former MSU and Detroit Lions running back, T.J. Duckett to create a day of enrichment while also focusing on the less fortunate.
MSU students and some of Duckett’s college teammates were among the 11 teams in the bracket competing for the top prize.
Shilique Calhoun, Donovan Clark and Jack Allen were also in attendance to support the cause.
Duckett is also the founder of the New World Flood, a non-profit organization whose purpose is “to flood the world with service.”
“It was always in my blood for it became my passion and purpose around 2011,” Duckett said when describing his love for volunteering. “Figuring out what I wanted to do after I got out of the NFL and just kind of spun into that.”
Duckett has been heavily involved with MSU athletics as a fan since leaving to be taken in the first round of the NFL Draft in 2002. He has been sighted at different sporting events.
Any earnings or profit the Battlefield Brawl receives will go directly to The Oldham Project, another non-profit organization that documents the beauty of a man, woman or child who has endured a life-threatening illnesses through picture taking.
Executive Director Sue Feenstra has heard many of these stories since taking over the position back in September of last year, as she’s the one who talks to everyone that calls in to get their pictures taken.
“The stories are amazing how strong these people are,” Feenstra said. “How they have taken this illness and just head on dive into it and knowing that they’ll get through it.”
