Ja'Mar Toombs on his return to Aggieland, son being cancer free

Key quotes from Ja'Mar Toombs interview

“It’s like coming home. I love getting to come back to College Station and I always feel the love when I come back, like I said it’s like coming home.”

“The last time I was in College Station was last year. I know I brought my boys up to the Spring game after Johnny won the Heisman and they got to take pictures with him.”

“It feels good to know they still think about me and still remember my playing days. As a player, you feel like you played your time and then you get forgotten about, but that didn’t happen in College Station. In Aggieland you never get forgotten, none of the players do, and I can’t wait to come out there, shake hands, take pictures hug people you know meet up with some good Aggies.”

“My kids think people yelling 'Tooooombs!' is awesome. It’s funny and we always tell the story about how when we first started, my mom thought they were booing me. It started very low, and then when it started with the whole crowd that’s when it got really loud.”

“Well my oldest son found out in 2009 that he had cancer called acinic cell carcinoma, a cancer of the neck and throat. Since that time he had a lot of growths that would come into his neck and mouth area, and he’s had over 10 surgery’s since then to remove little tumors and lymph nodes. This year, from January to March, he went through radiation and right now he’s recovering. We went to check in with his doctors and so far the radiation treatment is still doing good, he’s gaining his weight back but we’re still going to go back and check in and make sure nothing’s coming back. I can’t wait for people to get to meet him and get to see that their thoughts and prayers, here’s the proof of it. He’s a senior now and he’s getting ready to graduate. This trip is going to allow me to show him around campus and try to convince him to head on down to Texas A&M.”

“He is cancer free, and I can’t wait to hear that a year from now and another year after that.”

“The Aggie network is amazing. You ask for help or for people to think about you and get a lot of help with the Aggie community. They’re still asking, emailing and calling me, asking how he’s doing and how the recovery is going. It wasn’t like a one time type deal, Aggies are really concerned and they really care.”

“When they first hired Coach Sumlin I knew that with the change of the conference, I had a really good feeling about it. I went to a Dallas A&M club meeting and you they asked me for a prediction and I said we were going to be very good that year. People were saying that since it was our first year in the SEC we weren’t going to be that good and to expect a hard conference, and we came out and only lost two games. I knew we made the right decision and Sumlin and all his staff are doing a great job. We’re getting recruits from everywhere and I think that the SEC move is paying a lot in Texas and is really going to pay off when we start getting those recruits from Florida.”

“I look at how good our conference is and how good the players are and if we keep getting better and better, we’ll get more of those players like they talk about at Alabama in the national championship game, that’ll be us.”

“As a running back you we’re always taking hits, I like to see a guy like Tra Carson that can dish out a couple every now and then.”

“It's hard to pick a favorite playing moment. The '98 Maroon Out game against Nebraska really meant a lot to me because it was a week after my birthday and I was still trying to find my spot on the team and where I fit in. Being able to do that against such a good team really catapulted my career, but I really really enjoyed playing in the 'snow bowl' against Mississippi State. Every time I think about it, I know that my last carry in an A&M uniform went for a touchdown, so I think that’s why I like that game more.”

“You can’t beat the Aggie family. I tell my kids all the time I brag about being an Aggie so much and I bleed maroon all day long. I hope a lot of people come out and I can’t wait to shake hands and say ‘thank you’ to everyone that comes out.”