Trip home leads to scary discovery for journeyman tight end Mitchell Henry

When he was cut from the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad last month, tight end Mitchell Henry was told to stick close to the city, because the Ravens intended to re-sign him a week later.

But Henry, an undrafted free agent out of Western Kentucky in 2015, wanted to go home to Kentucky for some time with his wife and a hunting trip with his father.

While he was there, however, Henry felt pain in his shoulder and went to the hospital. What doctors found was far more than a rotator cuff or a fracture in his scapula, or shoulder blade bone.

Doctors found a mass in Henry’s chest and diagnosed him with acute myeloid leukemia.

ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, citing a source, reports that Henry has begun chemotherapy and that a search is underway to find a match for a bone marrow transplant.

“He’s in tough shape, but he’s in good spirits,” the source told Demovsky. “He’s a man of faith, and he’s already started treatments.”

Despite undergoing physicals with the Ravens and three other teams that had him in for workouts this season, no one had previously discovered the mass in Henry’s chest.

Henry, who turns 24 next week, was initially signed by the Green Bay Packers after the 2015 draft. He was released at the end of training camp that year but picked up by the Broncos. The Packers brought him back as a member of the practice squad midway through last season. But Henry broke his hand in training camp this year, leading Green Bay to release him again.

On Monday, Packers coach Mike McCarthy said “a number” of members of the team had already reached out to Henry, and Henry tweeted a screenshot of a text message from Peyton Manning, whom he was briefly teammates with and wanted to let Henry know he’d be in his prayers.

“You could see the impact when we got the news the other day,” McCarthy said of news of Henry’s diagnosis spreading through the Packers. “I think it knocked all of us over. And frankly it explained some things, too, because Mitchell just wasn’t quite right in training camp. We don’t know the extent of it. We just know what the initial diagnosis is, but he will definitely get support from the Green Bay Packers.”

Henry’s brother, Ben, has started a website to raise money for Mitchell’s treatment since he has limited health insurance. On the site, Ben Henry writes that donations will go to help reduce medical expenses, to help Mitchell’s parents with the cost of travel to visit their son, and to help with BeTheMatch, which matches bone marrow donors with those in need.