Australian NFL giant shows true grit

Seattle Seahawks' Australian Jesse Williams has shown kidney cancer and two knee injuries won't end his NFL dream.

Superman can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but Australian NFL giant Jesse Williams' effort at scaling Seattle's iconic Space Needle step-by-step may be more impressive.

The Brisbane defensive tackle, nicknamed Tha Monstar, has lugged his 191cm tall, 148kg body up the 832 steps.

This is despite having a cancerous kidney removed just two months ago and making the vertical trek on two knees that prevented him from playing a single regular season game with the Seattle Seahawks the past two years.

"I'm a pretty tough guy, so I can handle the cards I'm dealt and the situations I'm put in," the heavily-tattooed 24-year-old told Seahawks.com.

When it was announced in May that Williams had been diagnosed with Papillary Type 2 cancer it appeared he would miss another NFL season with the Seahawks.

Just two weeks later he was cleared to do light practices.

Seattle drafted Williams in 2013, but he is yet to play a regular season NFL game after suffering consecutive knee injuries.

The Queenslander completed the tortuous Space Needle climb this week to promote an October 3 public charity run up the 52-storey landmark to benefit the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The Seahawks and Williams posted photos on Twitter of the sweaty Australian scaling the structure.

"I asked (my doctors) how you get stuff like this, and they said it's just purely bad luck," Williams, discussing his cancer diagnosis, said.

"So hopefully they removed all that and I'm on the come-up for the rest of my career."


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Source: AAP


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