Posted by: Chris Vannini on October 18, 2012

Jerry Kill has never been ashamed to talk about his health.

A cancer survivor who suffers from seizures, one thing Kill doesn't appreciate is people who look at him - or others - differently. While on KFAN 10.03, Kill talked about his illness, and the seizure he had a week ago.

Kill also revealed that he received an e-mail from a coward calling him a freak. He addressed the situation, while standing up for himself, and others, with a passionate response.

"I've had some people attack me in different ways," he said. "I've been called, 'We've got a freak coaching the Minnesota Gophers.' I think that is the baddest thing that you can say to an individual. I'm going to give a statistic out to the person who had the guts to send that to me in an e-mail. One out of six people in the state of Minnesota has epilepsy.

"Just nobody's real proud about saying it because it's a tough situation to deal with. But I'm going to say it as the head coach of the University of Minnesota to all the people that are the one out of the six that I'm not a freak and neither are they. We're normal people. (I'm) trying to coach the game of football.

"Let me tell you, you want to walk in my shoes? You want to walk in to Joe Senser's (where the radio show is) and not know if you're going to have a seizure today? Or you walk onto the practice field? There are people that are vice president right here in our great state of Minnesota dealing with the same thing, and they're public figures, it's just they're not covered like I am, which is good.

"So I'm going to take a negative - since I was called a freak - and I'm going to turn it into a positive. I'm going to work my tail end off for the people that have the same situation I have. Maybe I'll get in trouble for this, but I've always told it like it is, but I am a tough person, and I've got a tough wife. The best way I can put it: Anybody who has the guts to do that, come see me. I'll show you how damn tough I am."

Good for you, Jerry.

You can listen to the audio below.

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Chris Vannini is the lead writer for CoachingSearch.com and has covered Michigan State sports for The State News, The Oakland Press and MLive.com. He writes a weekly column for the Detroit Free Press on behalf of SB Nation. Vannini lives in Big Ten country, so his foot speed is far from SEC caliber, but his pulse on coaches is hard to match. Be sure to follow @CoachingBuzz on twitter and send your feedback to chris@coachingsearch.com