Jeff Gunter barely made it through the Cincinnati Bengals' preseason. The seventh-round pick from Coastal Carolina put in the hard work throughout training camp and the preseason in order to earn his spot on the team — something that he could not have achieved without the support of his mom.

Gunter's mom, Jenniffer, also did all she could to help her son achieve her NFL dream. This included hiding her own cancer diagnosis from Jeff so as not to distract him from his objective of making the final roster cut.

Jennifer was diagnosed with Lymphoma in February of this year, but she opted not to reveal this shocking development to her son. She knew that Jeff would “stop what he's doing” and come home — something that Jeff himself later confirmed after finding out about her mom's sickness (via Tanya O'Rourke of WCPO Cincinnati):

“I don't think I would be here without her,” Jeff Gunter said. “She pushed me when I didn't think I could do it myself. She was always fighting to keep on and keep grinding.”

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Right in the midst of training camp, Jeff knew that something just wasn't right. He confronted his mom and Jennifer came clean with her cancer diagnosis. At that point, however, she had already gone through her treatment.

As the Bengals' preseason progressed, Jeff still wasn't sure if he was going to make it. Right before the team's final preseason game, he got all emotional as he sent a message of appreciation to his loving mom:

“I just told her, ‘Hey, I don't think this will be the last one, but if it is, I just want to say thank you for bringing me here, like, being a part of it pushed me farther than I thought I could go, just for being there for me,'” Jeff Gunter said. “And I said, ‘We got one more show guaranteed together, and I'm gonna enjoy every second of it.' And I just wanted to let her know, like, everything you do is appreciated. And if this is the last one, let it be the best one.”

He did make the cut, and right now, Jeff Gunter has achieved his dream to become an NFL player — something that he admits is his mom's “dream just as much as it is mine.”