With Leukemia Behind Him, Teen To Announce Broncos Draft Pick

DENVER (CBS4) - Daniel Hailpern loves all things football: from the pre-season to the Super Bowl, training camp to the combine, and especially the NFL Draft.

"The draft is my favorite part of the year," Hailpern says. "I think it is the most important (football) day of the year, it's where everything starts."

And this year, the 16-year-old from Colorado will announce the Broncos 1st round pick, as part of his Make-A-Wish experience in Chicago.

But don't worry about him getting stage fright, as Hailpern is no stranger to the spotlight.

Almost two years ago, he wrote the lyrics for "Broncos Go," for a parody song contest at Children's Hospital Colorado. His entry won, and the video produced by the in-house Seacrest Studios has been viewed over 2 million times.

Shortly after, Hailpern began hosting his own NFL radio show at the hospital, and as word spread, he has been featured on ESPN, the NFL Network and CBS Sports Network among others.

He also became the Children's Hospital ambassador to the Broncos, and has been able to interview multiple players on his show and at the team's facility.

"It's definitely been the best two years of my life," Hailpern said.

But "best" not exactly the word his mom, Nadine Hailpern, would use, considering how this two year run began.

"They told us it is positive and Daniel has leukemia. And your whole world just shatters," Nadine recalls of learning of his diagnosis in June 2014.

Daniel was 14 and had just finished the 8th grade.

"I was pretty much on enough medication to kill a small elephant," Daniel says. "So I don't remember anything from the first month."

But it was just the start of long battle with the potentially deadly disease that included five rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.

"It was awful for a long time," Nadine says. "It wasn't days, or weeks, it was months. We lived here (Children's Hospital) for nine months."

So to pass the time, Daniel turned his focus to football.

"I had the upper hand at fantasy football," Daniel jokes. "I had a lot of time on my hands to crunch the stats and figure out who I wanted."

And he would also spend hours preparing for his new radio show that broadcasts to all the rooms at the hospital. The distraction was just what the doctor ordered.

"It has been his focal point and distraction -- his motivator," Nadine says. "And some days with the radio show, it was the only thing that got him out of bed."

"Football helped me get through everything by keeping my mind positive," Daniel says. "And always looking forward to the next week, not because it was another week towards getting healthy, but it was another week to be watching another football game."

And now with the leukemia behind him, Hailpern is back in school and looking forward to a career someday in sports broadcasting, and of course looking forward to his NFL Draft experience.

"Sure there was a huge low, but if you don't have the low, you don't have the high and all the stuff that comes with it!" he said.