KAPOLEI, Hawaii - Whether Mark Fields was chasing down Torry Holt and Ahman Green in practice or just lounging with his NFC teammates, the Carolina Panthers linebacker has worn a smile all week.
Fields is enjoying everything about his second trip to the Pro Bowl - but more important, he's enjoying life after Hodgkin's disease.
"I'm just really happy right now," said Fields, a replacement for injured Tampa Bay linebacker Derrick Brooks. "This is a little sweeter than the first one, just because of the circumstances and the obstacles that I had to go through."
The speedy tackler missed the 2003 season while fighting his illness, which threatened his big plans to build on his breakout play in 2002. He led the Panthers with 127 tackles that season, registering 7½ sacks and seven forced fumbles.
Instead, he spent the next year in and out of the hospital - and the Panthers made the Super Bowl without him.
Fields was hospitalized in August 2003 when a cut on his thumb became infected and didn't heal. Further tests detected Hodgkin's disease, and he immediately began chemotherapy.
"From first being diagnosed to going through chemotherapy and battling my way back, it wasn't easy," Fields said.
He returned to the starting lineup this season, recording 62 tackles, four sacks and an interception to earn a trip back to Hawaii. He also restored a measure of his imposing presence on the field.
"He didn't just come back to play, he came back to dominate," said Panthers receiver and fellow Pro Bowl player Muhsin Muhammad.
Even when Fields was going through his most difficult times, Muhammad knew the linebacker would remain upbeat.
"When you speak about overcoming adversities and obstacles in life, we talk about the normal things that affect us, but cancer is life-threatening," he said. "He battled back and made it to the Pro Bowl. I can't say enough about that."
Fields, a 10-year veteran out of Washington State, found his fight with cancer to be a humbling experience that made him grow up and appreciate life.
"You don't take things as lightly any more," he said. "You're happy to get up and see the sunshine. You're happy about the little things now."
Everything that Fields used to take for granted.
"As a professional athlete, when you're used to being on top - a first-round pick and so forth," he said. "Sometimes you can have a tendency to take a few things for granted. It's not necessarily given to you, but it comes easy to you. And when it's taken away like that, you really, really appreciate everything."
Fields and Muhammad are also joined by linebacker Dan Morgan and defensive end Julius Peppers from Carolina.
"The more the merrier," Fields said. "We're having a little Panther party."
Morgan said there were questions whether Fields would be the same player he was before the diagnosis. But Fields answered them immediately.
"I don't think anyone has come back from Hodgkin's to play football, and the way he did it was amazing," Morgan said. "It seemed he got stronger as the year went on. He's an inspiration."
Hodgkin's disease is a form of cancer that strikes the lymph nodes and other organs of the body that are part of the body's immune and blood-producing systems. More than 80 percent of the cases can be cured when treated with radiation or chemotherapy.
"It can hit anybody. There's nothing that really causes it," Fields said. "Here I am in the prime of my career and health, and I get hit with it. It's not like you're doing something wrong with your body or out drinking every night, because I don't do that."
Fields said no matter what happens on the field Sunday and in the future, every day is a victory for him.
"People who have cancer, they can relate to that," he said.
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