The former Missouri football coach has, over the years, made peace with his cancer diagnosis. He backed non-Hodgkin lymphoma into remission once, and plans to do so again now that his treatments have resumed. He has become comfortable knowing he’s fighting an opponent that never will go away, and he’s still full of fight. So, no, it wasn’t his health that was off.
Pinkel had remained plenty busy since his retirement from coaching. He enjoyed his time as a fundraising liaison for the Missouri athletics department. After that contract expired he took a liking to the guest speaker circuit, where his lessons on teamwork and leadership applied to folks in the business world.