His football career is almost certainly done, but he still has his life.

The 20-year-old had been seen by a doctor after he complained of a severe headache and numbness in his side, but no one suspected a stroke.

“Found a mass, a blood clot in the back of his head, and a small one on the left side which caused a stroke and left his right side weak,” Dan Burns, Derrick’s adoptive father, said.

Wow.

Scary beyond belief. The silver lining — and there really is one — is that he will be all right and this can be addressed early enough for him to get well and live a normal life. Yes, football is done for him. But he still can get his education (I am assuming that Pitt is going to do the right thing and honor his scholarship). He still gets to live his life.

Derrick Burns did feel he had to break the news to Coach Paul Chryst.

“’Coach, I think I’m done with football,’” Dan Burns said of Derrick. “We kind of had a little laugh over that — through the seriousness of it all we still had a little laugh over that.”

“Paul Chryst, the class act that he is, says, ‘Derrick, I don’t care about football right now. We just got to get you better,’” Burns continued.

Indeed. Get well Derrick Burns.