He first played on professional football teams, the San Diego Chargers, the Houston Oilers, and the Kansas City Chiefs, and then found fame and fortune in professional wrestling, a sport that landed him in the World Wrestling Federation Hall of Fame.

He is Ernie “Big Cat” Ladd. And on Saturday night, he died of cancer at the age of 68.

Ladd’s battle with cancer began in 2004. It started in his colon and later spread to his stomach and bones.

“The doctor told me I had three-to-six months to live,” Ladd said in 2005. “I told him Dr. Jesus has the verdict on me.”

It seems the great doctor gave Ladd, the 15th player taken in the 1961 AFL draft, more than a few months, proof that numbers are not everything in the game of cancer.

Ladd, almost 6-foot-10 and more than 300 pounds, started making appearances at wrestling events during his football career. He was first a special events referee and then became a wrestler. It was both a knee injury and the lure of the lucrative wrestling industry that ended Ladd’s football career.

“In what other sport can you pick up a $14 pair of boots, $0.59 socks, spend maybe a total of $50, and convert it into $100,000 a year, if you are sharp and train?” Ladd once said. “My intention was to go back to football, but pro wrestling was so good to me.”