Ex-Husky DeFeo Deals with Health Crisis On Top of the Pandemic
Brenno DeFeo joined the University of Washington football team in 1980 as a big-name, big-haired running back, as a touted recruit from suburban Kennedy Catholic High School who selected the Huskies over Notre Dame and UCLA, as a fun guy in the locker room.
He lived up to his advance football billing by becoming one of two true freshmen who played right away for coach Don James — fearsome defensive tackle Scott Garnett was the other — before he blew a knee.
Even with his football-related injury setbacks, DeFeo maintained a fun-loving attitude that forever endeared him to his UW teammates. They called this Italian-American kid "Horse," a takeoff on "Italian Stallion" plus he worked at now-defunct Longacres and still loves to bet on the thoroughbreds.
He looked the part of the MTV era with his wildly sprouting hair. Fellow Huskies used to say it wasn't a real party unless DeFeo showed up. They absolutely loved this guy. They still do.
"Brenno definitely had big '80s hair," former teammate Jimmy Rodgers, a starting Huskky safety and team captain back then.
The good times, however, have given way to an uncomfortable existence for DeFeo, 59, still a middle-aged man.
He's currently battling lymphatic cancer, now a four-year ordeal that put him in a hospital this past week in Auburn, Washington. With his rapidly deteriorating condition coming during a surging pandemic, it seemed like the worst kind of piling on to his health.
Over the weekend, with his white blood-cell counts dropping to dangerous levels and his kidneys beginning to fail, DeFeo checked in and found himself lying on a gurney in a hospital hallway by himself for an entire day until he couldn't stand it anymore.
Regular beds were reserved for patients who are suffering from COVID-19 as hospitals everywhere run out of regular patient-care facilities.
Brenno DeFeo played right away for the Huskies.
UW Athletics
A frustrated DeFeo signed a health waiver and left the hospital after spending hour after hour in the middle of a high-trafficked, noisy hospital space wasting away.
"He said I'm not dying in here," Rodgers said.
DeFeo previously worked for decades as a car salesman at Auburn's Scarff Ford dealership. He received a layoff notice when the pandemic shut everything down in 2020. He'd been managing his health until his cancer reappeared and complicated matters.
He counts close friends such as Rodgers from the Husky football team and Mike Lund from the auto dealership for helping him combat this full-on assault on his health. People have been transporting him between his medical treatments and helping him find new living arrangements.
DeFeo agreed to return to the hospital and submit to kidney dialysis, which began on Monday. He's always been coachable stemming back to his Washington football career, even with his certifiable mischievous streak. Even with those unnerving hospital obstacles during a pandemic.
Rodgers has established a GoFundMe account for DeFeo that can be accessed here to help the former Husky running back deal with his lymphatic cancer. People have proven exceedingly generous so far in their financial support of DeFeo. He just moved into a new residence closer to his medical treatments. The fund is halfway to its goal of $20,000.
The Horse still has more races to run.
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