Coeur d'Alene man battling cancer gets autographed Mahomes football boost

Damon Earin’s cancer fight drew a deeply local response this week, when Dale Nosworthy and his son Kelly Nosworthy handed him an autographed football signed by Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The ball carried a message written for him by people who have known him for years: “Keep on fighting big D.”

The gesture landed at a hard moment for the Coeur d’Alene resident, whose GoFundMe says he has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The fundraiser says Earin recently spent a week at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where doctors discovered 23 cancer spots in his liver. Because of the number and location of those spots, surgery was not an option at that time.

Instead, Earin was being considered for a clinical trial that would use a chemo pump to deliver treatment directly to his liver. If he is accepted, the fundraiser says he may need to travel back and forth between home and Mayo Clinic every two weeks for care. The campaign, created on Feb. 6, 2026, also says Earin is married and has children.

The Nosworthys’ role made the moment especially resonant in Coeur d’Alene. Dale Nosworthy founded The Ground Round, the burger-and-omelette spot that was later renamed Nosworthy’s Hall of Fame, and he and Kelly Nosworthy now co-own the restaurant on Government Way. Their family name is tied to the city’s sports and dining history, which made the Mahomes football feel less like a celebrity collectible and more like a personal show of support.

A June 6 Coeur d’Alene Press photo showed Earin holding the ball, with the caption repeating the note on it: “Keep on fighting!” The image captured what the gift represented to people around him, a reminder that in a city with deep roots and close ties, one man’s diagnosis can pull together neighbors, business owners and longtime friends around a shared act of encouragement.

For Earin, the football was more than memorabilia from a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. It became a public sign that the community sees him, knows his story and is still standing with him as he faces a diagnosis that has already changed the shape of his life.