‘Kayshon Boutte Is Probably Going To Have a 40-Yard Reception for a Touchdown’: 15-Year-Old Patriots Fan Fighting Leukemia Gets His Super Bowl 60 Wish

When the New England Patriots run out for Super Bowl 60 on Sunday, one of the boldest play calls of the week will come from the stands, not the sideline. Fifteen-year-old Maine native and lifelong Patriots fan Avery MacNair, who has spent the last two years in treatment for leukemia, is in California on a Make-A-Wish trip and is already calling his shot. “Kayshon Boutte is probably going to have a 40-yard reception for a touchdown,” he said.His seat in the crowd comes in the same postseason that defensive coordinator Terrell Williams was declared cancer-free and cleared to travel with the team after a months-long battle with prostate cancer. Together, their stories turn New England’s Super Bowl run into something that cuts past schemes and matchups and into what this week means for people whose lives were on a very different line a few months ago.Make-A-Wish asked MacNair in 2023 what he wanted most. He did not pause. He wanted to go to the Super Bowl to see the Patriots. According to WABI and Gray News, setbacks in his treatment pushed the trip to this season, lining it up with New England’s unlikely charge to Santa Clara.MacNair has loved the sport for as long as he can remember. “I’ve always loved football,” he said. “I used to play it as a kid, and then, obviously after everything happened, I wasn’t able to play it really as much.” Treatment for leukemia took over the time that used to belong to youth games and backyard throws.He has had to learn how to compete without pads. “It’s just very important to keep your mind strong and keep your head up,” MacNair said. That is not poster-line optimism. That is a teenager trying to talk himself through hospital days and uncertainty while still staying locked into every Patriots snap.When he found out his wish was finally going to be granted, New England had not even clinched its Super Bowl spot. The news came before the Patriots beat the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game, which turned the night into something close to torture. “I thought they were going to lose,” MacNair said. “During the end, I didn’t think they were going to pull it out, but they did. When Christian Gonzalez got the interception, that was nice.”Now he gets the full week in California with his brother, Skylar, before watching his favorite team play in person for the first time. His view of the matchup is not sentimental. It is football-brain practical. “Probably be a defensive game, so 17-23, probably, hopefully, the Pats,” he said. Then came the Boutte prediction, the kind of call that could make a Super Bowl memory permanent if it hits.If Kayshon Boutte really does break free for a 40-yard score, it will count as a big moment for New England’s passing game. It will also turn a kid from Maine into the fan who called it first while he was still in a fight most adults never have to face.On the other side of the field from MacNair’s seat, Williams is living out his own version of borrowed time. The 51-year-old coordinator was diagnosed with prostate cancer in September, shortly after the Patriots’ Week 1 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. He thought he had a stomach bug until head coach Mike Vrabel pushed him to see the training staff, which led to urgent tests and a diagnosis that reset his life.“We all thought I had a stomach flu, which I did. But as they were doing tests, that’s when they found out about the cancer,” Williams said. “I mean, thank God that I had the stomach flu because if I didn’t, I would have been business as usual.”Williams stepped away from full-time duties and started chemotherapy at Massachusetts General Hospital. Inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr took over play-calling, but the coordinator refused to disappear. He showed up to meetings when he could. He stayed on the text threads. Players and coaches wore “T-Strong” shirts. The defense kept his voice in the room even when his body could not be on the sideline.Kuhr knows exactly what that presence meant. “It means everything in the world,” he said. “He’s a great friend. He’s a great mentor. I consider him family. And for him to power through that, man. That’s bigger than being here right now, for sure.”Linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson watched his coordinator walk into rooms looking like a man who refused to let illness dictate how he carried himself. “I feel like he never lost it,” Chaisson said. “He still had the charismatic energy and kept a smile on his face, he kept being positive. You wouldn’t be able to know anything was going on with him. I appreciated everything that he showed throughout the process.”Williams was declared cancer-free three weeks ago, just before New England’s divisional-round win over the Houston Texans. The team found out in a meeting that quickly turned from game-planning to relief. The news also cleared him to travel for the first time all season. This week in Santa Clara is not only his first Super Bowl as a coordinator. It is his first road trip with the Patriots since Week 1.The fight changed how he handles pain in front of his family and players. Growing up in South-Central Los Angeles, he was taught to swallow his feelings. Cancer forced him to do the opposite with his 13-year-old son, Tahj. “I would tell him that everything’s okay, but sometimes you just got to tell them the truth,” Williams said. “I would talk to him about having tough days. When you’re going through something and when it’s tough, you got to share with people, man. Because keeping that stuff in, that’s not the way to go.”Safety Jaylinn Hawkins saw the same thing at work inside the locker room. “He’s been a hell of a coach for us since he got here,” Hawkins said. “All that he was going through he still managed to show up for us and that’s special and that means a lot. Showing up for people is something I take serious. To see him showing up for our team the way he did regardless of what was going on was just amazing to me, and that just shows how much he loves and cares about us.”Williams is honest about where he stands. The scans are clear, but he still has blood work scheduled every three months. “What I’ve learned is that you’re never really cancer-free,” he said. “I mean, it’s dormant… But I also know that there’s still a journey ahead because it’s like once you have cancer, you always have the threat of it coming back.”He has already cut out soda and alcohol and talks openly about how much this forced slowdown exposed the way coaches and players treat themselves like machines. “I realized that I needed a change in my life,” Williams said. “And sometimes things happen to you from a health standpoint, to slow you down. And that’s the way that I look at this. This cancer was unexpected. And sometimes… We live like we’re invincible. And when it happens to you, you realize you’re not invincible. So it was a wakeup call.”For Williams, this week is not about the stage. “Honestly, my thoughts are about the game and not really about me or the Super Bowl or anything,” he said. He insists this could be a preseason game and he would feel the same way, just grateful to be with his players again after a season spent in treatment rooms.