Cancer survivor, Titans offensive lineman David Quessenberry scores touchdown (video)

Tennessee Titans offensive lineman David Quessenberry scored his first career touchdown on Sunday after the Colts, five years after being diagnosed with cancer

Not all touchdowns are created equal, at least for Tennessee Titans offensive lineman David Quessenberry.

The Titans, down 7-0 to the Indianapolis Colts at home on Sunday, were faced with a first-and-goal from the one-yard line to start the second quarter. They lined up in a goal-line formation, with Quessenberry playing as a sixth lineman. As the ball was snapped, Quessenberry slipped past Colts linebacker Darius Leonard and caught a pass from quarterback Marcus Mariota in the back of the end zone for a Titans touchdown.

Quessenberry held the ball up high as his teammates came to celebrate his first career touchdown with him. But for Quessenberry, the play meant more than just tying the game against an AFC South rival.

Five years ago, Quessenberry was coming off a rookie season spent entirely on the injured reserve after the Houston Texans picked him in the sixth round of the 2013 Draft. After weeks of not feeling well, he consulted doctors and, on June 6, 2014, heard the news that put his NFL career on hold: he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

It took three years of chemotherapy for Quessenberry to finally be declared in remission. In the meantime, the Texans kept him on the team with a non-football illness designation. He made his NFL debut with Houston on a Monday night, Christmas Day, in 2017 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Waived by Houston after appearing in two games that season, Quessenberry caught on with the Titans, spending all of last season on the practice squad. He made the 53-man roster out of training camp this year and played one snap on offense and seven on special teams in the Titans opener against the Cleveland Browns last week.

In August, while he was fighting for a roster spot, Quessenberry admitted that his story can give others with cancer some hope. “I’m not afraid to talk about how some days I couldn’t even get out of bed,” he told the Tennessean. “I leaned on other survivors, people who shared my same journey. Knowing someone fighting the good fight could see me here today, maybe it will give them hope. That’s something I don’t take lightly.”

He did just that on Sunday, and if the image of Quessenberry holding the ball aloft just five years after battling for his life gives people fighting the same fight hope, then it was more than just an average touchdown.