News / People
Miss. State Defensive End Loses Battle With Cancer
Mississippi State defensive end Nick Bell died Tuesday after a short battle with skin cancer.
Bell, a 20-year-old from Bessemer, AL, was diagnosed in late September after experiencing headaches during football practice and had surgery on October 1st to remove a mass from his brain.
After the surgery, there were high hopes for his recovery. He returned to campus on October 16th and was on the sideline during the Bulldogs' victory over Alabama-Birmingham. But only 2 weeks later, he took a turn for the worse. Bell underwent emergency surgery on Monday morning after it was found that the cancer had aggressively spread throughout his body. Nearly 50 Mississippi State players and coaches showed up at UAB Hospital last night to say their goodbyes.
Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen held a team meeting on Tuesday afternoon, where he informed the players Bell had died.
"Nick was a son and he was a brother to everyone in this football family," a somber Mullen said Tuesday night. "I know he's looking down on us right now and I'm sure he's already been picked for a team up in heaven to play football again — the game that he loved."
Bell, a 6’ 3”, 265-pound sophomore, played in four games this season, starting two, including his final game against Georgia on Sept. 25.
