Chiefs' Eric Berry 'shed a few tears' in heroic homecoming

Two years ago, Eric Berry was in Atlanta receiving chemotherapy treatments for his Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

On Sunday, he helped win a game there for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Playing just a short drive away from his birthplace of Fairburn, Ga., the Chiefs safety scored eight points in the game. His pick-six in the first half would later be overshadowed by a fourth-quarter two-point conversion interception that he returned 98 yards for the game-winning score. The Chiefs won 29-28.

“I shed a few tears before the game, I shed a few during the game, and I shed a few after,” Berry told reporters after the game.

Berry became the first player in NFL history to return an interception for a touchdown and another for a two-point try.

“Eric is the heart and soul of this team – I think the embodiment of what we’re about,” Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith said in his post-game press conference. “That’s selflessness. That’s hard work, giving it up for the guy next to you. That’s all Eric talks about, and it’s real. It’s sincere. There’s no phoniness about it. It’s from the heart and I really think that does echo throughout the locker room.”

After the pick-six, a 37-yard return in the second quarter, Berry ran to the corner of the end zone where his family members sat in the stands, and handed the football to his mother.

“I can try to give her whatever,” Berry said. “It won't amount to the things she's given me, and my dad as well. So many nights I was crying on their shoulder trying to make sense of everything that was going on and they just kept telling me, ‘Keep pressing and keep pressing and you'll be back, you'll be able to play the game the way you want to play the game.’ Both of them supported me throughout the whole process. I can't thank them enough.”

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The game marked the first time Berry had played in Atlanta in his professional career.

“God's working through him in a mighty way,” Chiefs outside linebacker Justin Houston said, according to the Kansas City Star. "He's beaten cancer and came back playing like a maniac."

As part of the NFL's "My Cleats, My Cause" week, Berry wore purple shoes to honor those fighting cancer.

“There were a lot of emotions so I just tried to contain them and let it show through my play,” Berry said.

The Chiefs improved to 9-3 but remain one game back of first place in the AFC West after the Oakland Raiders defeated the Buffalo Bills 38-24 on Sunday. The Chiefs face the Raiders on Thursday.

Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes.

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