Piccolo award hits close to home for Bears RB Cunningham

The award is given annually each year to a Bears veteran and rookie who best exemplify the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and sense of humor that characterized Piccolo, the former Bears running back. Tarik Cohen was this year’s rookie recipient. Piccolo was in his fourth season when a chest x-ray revealed a malignancy. Several months later, on June 16, 1970, he died at age 26 from embryonal cell carcinoma.

“There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about my father and the impact that he had on my life,” Cunningham said of his father, also Benny. “There were a lot of points where I hated football. Hated the idea of football; didn't want to play football and didn't understand…