PHOENIX — They both loved football but found out they loved each other more – but that fondness for football is still pretty serious.
At Nancy DeBorn's north Phoenix home, her upstairs living room is covered in Cardinals memorabilia — signed jerseys from players like Larry Fitzgerald, a whole corner dedicated to the late, great Pat Tillman, bobbleheads of the next generation of players like Kyler Murray and soon-to-be NFL legends like J.J. Watt, a game-worn jersey from when the team played at Sun Devil Stadium, and a whole wall dedicated to their sole Super Bowl appearance.
She even has programs from when the Cardinals football team was in St. Louis.
She estimates the memorabilia in one room is worth half a million dollars, but Nancy feels you can’t put a price on the one Cardinals memory that stands above all of this.
In December 2014, Nancy wore her Fitzgerald jersey down the aisle. At the altar, was the love of her life, Wade, wearing a Kansas City Chiefs patterned tuxedo. The two got married at what was then the University of Phoenix Stadium.
Nancy said she had a dream she’d get married at the game, and it all came true.
“Football brought us together, we’re a football family, we live, breathe, eat, plan our lives around football,” she said.
So, when Nancy and Wade found their dream home in the Valley, it was the Chiefs fan in the relationship that put together the fan cave for his love bird.
These days, she’s never loved the fan cave or those wedding photos more than she does now.
“It makes me happy because I know how much he loves me, or loved me...oh, he still loves me,” she said.
In March 2020, Wade started to fight a battle much tougher than anything on the gridiron. A series of tests followed by uncertainty kept Nancy and Wade up at night, waiting for the doctor to give a diagnosis.
Wade was diagnosed with one of the most aggressive and fastest-spreading forms of brain cancer — glioblastoma.
Wade would spend his next months in and out of the hospital until November 2021 when he went into a coma.
Like a blocker in front of her running back, Nancy learned all she could to keep Wade with her.
“I learned how to take his vitals, doing his blood pressure and his respiration,” she said, listing off dozens of more procedures.
Last month, Nancy said doctors told her Wade had no more than a few days to live.
Her labor of love for Wade kept him alive at their dream home long enough for family and friends from all over to come visit.
Wade passed away in late September.
Nancy said he was buried in his Chiefs tuxedo, as he wanted. She left him with one more thing.
“He’d say, ‘why did you put that Cardinals Jersey in my coffin with me?' Yeah, he’d say that,” she said smiling.
Nancy said she hasn’t been to a game since Wade passed but when she does, she hopes her football family will come up to her and cheer on the Cardinals.
She put together a crowdfunding account to help with medical expenses.
