You're not alone.

        That was the initial reaction of Joy Piccolo O'Connell, the widow left behind by the 1970 cancer death of Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo.

        “Why are they doing this?” asked Mrs. O'Connell when she heard that ABC wanted to remake the emotionally wrenching 1971 TV movie about the fiercely competitive Bears running backs, Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and superstar Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams).

        Then it hit her: Remaking the film could increase donations to the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund, which has raised $5 million in 30 years.

        And a prime-time broadcast (7 p.m. today, Channels 9, 2) would introduce the story to a new generation — including today's Bears who receive the team's annual Brian Piccolo Award and don't know who he was.

        “Now these athletes will know what this is all about,” said Mrs. O'Connell, who was 26 and the mother of three young daughters when her husband died. The girls now are 35, 34 and 32.

        “It's such a good story, and I think the youth of today need good stories,” she said.

        Brian Piccolo was the nation's leading scorer at Wake Forest in 1964 when he signed with the Bears. The next year the Bears drafted Mr. Sayers, who would become the 1965 NFL Rookie of the Year.

        At the height of the 1960s' civil-rights movement, the two players — one white, one African-American — bonded as roommates. When Mr. Sayers suffered a career-threatening injury in 1966, Mr. Piccolo pushed him through his rehabilitation.

        Mr. Piccolo never could catch Mr. Sayers on the field. He scored only five touchdowns in four seasons before a malignant tumor — embryonal cell carcinoma — was found near his heart. He died six months later, at age 26.

        Research advances in the past 30 years have made his disease “95 percent curable today or controlled,” Mrs. O'Connell said.

        “There was a reason he had to die, and we've all worked really hard at making a difference for people today. I'm just amazed at the money that we've raised,” said Mrs. O'Connell, who married Richard O'Connell, a Chicago-area concrete company owner, in 1973. They have two sons (ages 26 and 24).

        Viewers will see more of Mr. Piccolo's family life in the new and improved Brian's Song, a half-hour longer than the old 90-minute film. The children were not seen in the 1971 version, and the wives were peripheral characters.

        “We felt there was a whole family story to be told,” said Craig Zadan, who produced the film with Neil Meron. Their ABC credits include Cinderella, Annie and Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows.

        The football story is much the same, with new actors: Sean Maher (Party of Five) as Piccolo; Mekhi Phifer (Clockers, A Lesson Before Dying) as Sayers; and Ben Gazzara (Run For Your Life, An Early Frost) as Bears coach George Halas. Even some of the uniforms were the same worn in the 1971 movie, Mr. Meron said.

        Paula Cale (Providence) plays Mrs. Piccolo; Elise Neal (The Hughleys, Scream 2) portrays Linda Sayers.

        “They expand more on Brian and his illness,” said Mrs. O'Connell, who cried again watching the remake. “He really suffered. You didn't see the chest X-rays in the first movie. You didn't see that fear that you will see.

        “When you watch this movie, you will see that he had a radical mastectomy, which was extremely devastating to Brian. It was humiliating. He had a terrible time dealing with the removal of his breast.”

        When a cure was found for Mr. Piccolo's type of cancer after his death, his family shifted funding into breast cancer research at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

        Hardly a day has gone by in 30 years when Mrs. O'Connell hasn't talked about cancer research conducted in the name of her high school sweetheart from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

        “It's amazing. Every day, something else happens,” she said.

        She gets letters from fifth-grade classes that just read Brian Piccolo: A Short Season (Bonus Books; $12.95) by Jeannie Morris. Or she'll hear from cancer patients.

        “People call me all the time,” said Mrs. O'Connell, who splits her time between Devalan, Wis., and Marco Island, Fla. “I do a lot of referrals. I'm happy I have the resource to make a difference in a lot of people's lives.”

        The biggest contributors to the Piccolo Fund are the NFL players — whether they know it (or him) or not. The fund gets one-fourth of the NFL players' fine money. Last season, the organization received almost $500,000, she said.

        “We're really blessed,” she said. “When we started out, we would have been thrilled with $50,000, and we were! Now we get hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NFL. It varies according to how bad they are.

        “The Bears have been great,” she said. “The memory of Brian will never go away with the Chicago Bears and the NFL.”

        The hospitals and Bears office are braced for a flood of inquiries and donations after tonight's telecast. That's the best reason to remake Brian's Song.

        Contact John Kiesewetter by phone: 768-8519; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jkiesewetter@enquirer.com.
       

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