The average time for a shift in ice hockey is between 30 and 45 seconds. It begins when a player steps over the bench and takes the ice, charging up and down the rink at full speed. They throw their body at the puck, opponents and the boards, giving everything they have. When the shift ends, the player returns to the bench, dripping with sweat and exhausted, chest heaving as their lungs work overtime.

An average fan watching a hockey game takes between six and 10 breaths during the length of a hockey shift. A player, however, probably takes closer to 12 to 14 breaths per shift. While nobody in the arena is counting their breaths, there’s no one more attuned to the power of breath than Gunnar Esiason.

Gunnar Esiason isn’t like most hockey players — his ability to complete a shift often depended on how his cystic fibrosis was affecting him that day. Throughout his journey with CF, hockey became a lifeline during some of his darkest moments.

“In some ways, to me there was like some … normalcy that was driven into my life, despite everything I had to manage,” Gunnar told ESPN. “Hockey gave me that opportunity, right? When I was at my sickest, it was sort of like the release from CF.”

Gunnar, son of former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback and broadcasting legend Boomer Esiason, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at 25 months old. His story is chronicled in the latest E60 film, “Second Wind,” which airs on Dec. 24 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Cystic fibrosis, or CF, is a genetic disorder that causes the body to produce a thick mucus that can plug up the pancreas and lungs, making it extremely difficult to breathe. There are also digestive complications that accompany the diagnosis. Around 40,000 people in the United States and 100,000 people worldwide suffer from the disorder. At the time of Gunnar’s diagnosis, CF patients typically died before reaching adulthood.

There is no cure for cystic fibrosis, but the condition can be treated with daily medications and therapy.

“As I got older, [hockey] was actually kind of like the barometer of my health,” Gunnar said. “I could tell that I was feeling well when I was able to enjoy playing.”

Coming from a notable sports family, Gunnar’s passion and participation were encouraged from an early age — chronic condition be damned.

“My parents were very deliberate in encouraging me to have whatever life I wanted to have,” Gunnar recalled. “When I was playing youth hockey, my dad would be the dad banging on the glass while I was out there on the ice. I remember just having so much fun and thinking, okay, it was worth it.”

During the majority of Gunnar’s hockey career, he was only able to manage shorter shifts than the rest of his teammates, and he would frequently cough and spit up mucus onto the ice. But despite the highs and lows, hockey was always there for him.

“I think the way to look at it … he was able to play hockey, and so it was just kind of like small victories, you know, so he had a great hockey season, it was healthy for him to be out there skating,” said Gunnar’s mother, Cheryl.

While Boomer and Cheryl were exploring treatments for Gunnar’s disorder, Boomer would also take him to New York Rangers games, including playoff games and a Stanley Cup Final during the Rangers’ legendary 1994 run.

“ I just wanted to make sure that he had a fulfilling life, given the fact that we were told that it was going to be somewhat condensed when he was born,” Boomer said.

Outside of his skills on the ice, Gunnar followed his famous dad’s footsteps and joined his high school football team. But despite Gunnar’s passion, Boomer saw something that his son didn’t.

“He knew I was a much better hockey player, so he very candidly told me, ‘You’re not a really good football player,'” Gunnar shared. “Let’s think about hockey season in three or four months, and then let’s think about college in 12 months.”

The hockey passion in the Esiason clan doesn’t stop with Gunnar. His sister, Sydney, is married to NHL player Matt Martin, who’s currently rostered with the crosstown rival New York Islanders.

No matter whom the Esiasons are cheering for, the family has always rooted for Gunnar in his fight with cystic fibrosis. But the trajectory of his battle with CF was never a straight line. While sports remained an important aspect of Gunnar’s life, CF caused him to miss his senior year of high school football.

Gunnar managed to play hockey during college, but his health took a downturn in his early 20s. He took solace in coaching high school hockey at Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York, where he attended high school, making sure he set goals for himself.

“I wanted to grow participation in the team. I wanted to retain players all through all four years of high school. … So I developed those metrics for myself, and I put every ounce of remaining health that I had into making that vision happen. … And I think that’s how I coped with my CF for a long time.”

As with every phase of Gunnar’s life, hockey played an early role in his relationship with his wife, Darcy.

“Gunnar and I met in 2015, and our first date was a Ranger game,” Darcy told ESPN. “And I grew up in New York, and I played hockey as a kid and was a Ranger fan, so of course, I said yes.” Gunnar even proposed to Darcy while ice skating.

After a few particularly nasty years battling CF, Gunnar entered into a clinical trial in 2018 for a drug called Trikafta, which had received funding from the Boomer Esiason Foundation. Gunnar noticed a change in his breathing and respiratory system overnight but didn’t realize the full impact until he was playing in a recreational hockey game with his dad. In his first shift back on the ice, Gunnar skated for nearly two minutes with ease.

“Everyone was like, what the heck is going on with Gunnar?” he said. “I didn’t cough a single time the entire game. I didn’t spit anything out. I just kept going on the ice for these marathon shifts over and over and over again. Someone like finally built up the courage to ask … ‘what is going on with you?'”

Gunnar said that after the game, he and his dad shared a moment, knowing that Trikafta was really working and that Gunnar’s life had changed forever. In 2019, Trikafta was approved by the FDA, and it has been effective for about 90% of CF patients. The drug has also increased patients’ life expectancy to the mid-70s.

Trikafta has opened up a world of possibilities for Gunnar, who described a conversation he shared with his wife while stuck in traffic on a road trip.

“It was almost like a, ‘What do you wanna be when you grow up?’ question. And it brought back so many different memories from, you know, being a high school football player and then being a high school ice hockey player, and thinking that, maybe being a high school ice hockey coach is my career … Suddenly, my mind turned into a blank whiteboard, and it occurred to me that I could do whatever I wanted.”

Now, Darcy says Gunnar is passing on his love of hockey to his children, Kaspar and Mieke, without the intrusion of cystic fibrosis. “There are CF parents older than us who have kids, have had to bear witness to a little bit more of the struggle. But we’re just so lucky that our kids for now don’t have to see that, that piece of CF, and Daddy’s just Daddy, who will play hockey in the driveway for hours and play the monkey game and throw them over his shoulder and things like that …”

Something as simple as playing hockey in the driveway, or as complicated as having a family, once seemed impossible for Gunnar. But now, he and his dad Boomer can share in the joys — and pains — of parenting and grandparenting.

 ”It’s been awesome for me, but I think it’s been even more special to see how my dad looks at my son when we play. I think for him, this is my opinion … he must feel like … there’s a little boy in his life now who has a body that works and gets to use it as he wants, without anything holding him back. And it’s like, you can see the twinkle in his eye in some ways.”

Gunnar is still playing recreational hockey, coaching a high school team, rooting for the Rangers, and taking on life with the passion and resilience that’s always carried him. What’s next? Coaching his kids, someday.

“Gunnar’s always the dad who’s down to do everything, and he can’t wait to coach,” Darcy says. “I don’t know if there’s anyone else who’s more excited for a 5:00 a.m. mites hockey practice on a Saturday than Gunnar.”

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love stepped to the podium late Friday night, he could barely speak.

“I probably sound pretty terrible,” Love said.

After weeks of working his way back from a knee injury sustained in the Fighting Irish’s regular-season finale at USC, Love was hit with flu-like symptoms before a College Football Playoff first-round matchup against visiting Indiana. He spent the days before kickoff working with the athletic training staff and staying as hydrated as possible, even on a frigid game night. Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough didn’t know if Love could impact the game the longer it went on.

Turns out, he needed just one touch.

Despite a voice reduced to a whisper, Love delivered the first earsplitting play of the 12-team College Football Playoff era, a 98-yard touchdown run barely four minutes in that propelled No. 7 seed Notre Dame to its first-ever CFP win. He recorded the longest play in CFP history — by 13 yards — as well as the longest by an FBS player this season, registered the longest play Indiana had ever allowed and tied Fighting Irish running back Josh Adams (2015) for the longest rush in team history.

The run also added to a growing library of highlights for Love, whose hurdles, jukes and blistering speed have made him the main attraction on a Notre Dame team that will face No. 2 seed Georgia in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 (8:45 p.m. ET, ESPN) for the CFP quarterfinals.

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock called Love the “engine that kind of sparks this thing.” When quarterback Riley Leonard took the podium Friday, he wore a Jeremiyah Love T-shirt.

“I’ve always been a playmaker,” Love told ESPN on Monday. “My first-ever touch in football, when I was like 6 or 5, I scored a touchdown. My team has always relied on me to make big plays and make spectacular plays.

“I’ve always been the one.”

His combustible skill has been there from the start, but at Notre Dame, a quiet kid has found his voice — even speaking to “College GameDay” from the field before Friday’s game. The 6-foot, 210-pound Love also has built up his body and mind to become a more complete running back.

Can the speedy sophomore from St. Louis carry Notre Dame to its first national title since 1988?

From their seats in the parents’ section at Notre Dame Stadium on Friday, L’Tyona and Jason Love sensed their son was about to do something special.

“I’m usually able to call it,” L’Tyona said. “I’m like, ‘What if he went all the way?'”

“We’re used to seeing him do magnificent and crazy stuff,” Jason added. “We just hold our breath.”

Notre Dame had taken over at its own 2-yard line following a chaotic start to the game that included interceptions by each team. Love took the ball and raced through a hole cleared by linemen Billy Schrauth and Anthonie Knapp and tight end Cooper Flanagan.

In an instant, he zoomed past Indiana’s All-Big Ten cornerback D’Angelo Ponds. The Hoosiers’ other cornerback, Jamari Sharpe, took a poor angle toward Love, crossing in front of Ponds. But it didn’t matter. When Love gets into the open field, that’s a wrap.

“We have a saying: No cut’s the best cut,” McCullough said. “In that case, based on where the read went, no cut was the best cut. As soon as he got vertical on the sideline, he wasn’t going to get caught.”

Love’s own motto might be: No touch like the first one.

His first carry in peewee football went for a 90-yard touchdown.

After being slowed by a groin injury in the summer before his junior year at St. Louis’ Christian Brothers College High School, Love wasn’t expected to play in the opener against area powerhouse East St. Louis. On a sweltering night, Love told coach Scott Pingel, “Put me in.” The back’s first carry came on an outside counter play to the sideline. He slipped away from one defender and juked two others for a long touchdown.

“It was electric,” Jason Love said. “He sucked the air out of the whole stadium.”

Love’s run against East St. Louis stands out for Pingel, as do the five touchdowns (three rushing, two receiving) he had in the state championship at the University of Missouri’s Faurot Field. But Pingel also remembers a short gain by Love in the state semifinal when both opposing defensive tackles went unblocked.

“His ability to do things in small spaces, you have to slow the tape down to say, ‘Wow that’s amazing,'” Pingel said. “As a coach, I love his 3-yard runs. He always falls forward.”

Love uses different ways to get by defenders, including going over them. At New York’s Yankee Stadium on Nov. 23, he caught a short pass from Leonard and hurdled Army’s Donavon Platt for a 6-yard touchdown.

A week later, at USC, Love caught another short pass from Leonard then skied over USC’s Kamari Ramsey for a nice gain up the sideline. Even on a going-nowhere run against Indiana, Love stiff-armed a defender then tried the hurdle before being dropped for a loss.

“I have a lot of confidence to just try things out or do things that I want on the field,” Love said. “Last game, I wanted to hurdle somebody, so I was like, ‘F— it, let me try to hurdle,’ even though there were people behind him. Me playing with that freeness to be able do whatever I want to do has allowed me to make more explosive plays happen when the right look is there.”

Love has a track background. He won a state high school 100-meter title with a time of 10.76 seconds. But he never ran hurdles.

In high school football, hurdling is penalized.

“It resembles a hurdle, but I see long jumping,” James Gillespie, who coached Love in track at Christian Brothers, said of Love’s football aerials. “Especially the one he did against USC, if you look at that, he’s jumping off the left foot, which is what he did for us. I thought, ‘Long jump.’ The step, the cycle, hitch and a half, yeah, definitely.”

Love long jumped more than 21 feet in high school, and Gillespie thinks he could have gotten to 24 or 25. Like many who saw Love develop, Gillespie watched the run against Indiana with excitement but not surprise. As soon as Love turned the corner, Gillespie knew Love was gone, he said, “Unless Deion Sanders came out of retirement.”

Although Love’s recent wizardry has brought a bigger spotlight to his game, his favorite run of the season came late in the season opener at Texas A&M. After the two-minute timeout with the game tied at 13, Love waited for Schrauth and Flanagan to pull, scooted through the hole then shrugged off two defenders for a 21-yard touchdown — the game winner.

“Everything was on the line, really close game, two minutes left,” Love said. “The tight end made an amazing block, offensive line did their job, the receivers did their job. So, that play really was a culmination of teamwork and trusting each other and playing for each other. I was able to make an explosive play because everybody did their job.

“When that happens, great things happen.”

McCullough pinpoints the moment he felt Notre Dame would prevail in a competitive recruitment for Love. He had visited Love’s home in north St. Louis. Before entering Love’s room, McCullough saw shoes placed neatly outside on a mat.

“I said, ‘Hey, do I need to take my shoes off before I come in?'” McCullough said. “He said, ‘Nah, coach, I’m going to let you just go ahead and walk in.’ He took his own shoes off but let me walk in with mine on. I thought, ‘I must be in good shape.'”

The lined-up shoes and overall orderliness are central to Love’s personality. The gloves and towels in his Notre Dame locker are stacked perfectly. And if anyone removes Love’s athletic tape cutter, “You better put it back in the same spot, the same way,” said fellow Fighting Irish running back Aneyas Williams.

Growing up, Love would become upset when L’Tyona (pronounced Latonya) picked out his clothes for school because he wanted them a certain way. The same applied to food.

“Symmetry,” Jason Love said. “It has to be 1, 2, 3. It can’t be 1, 2, 4. It has to be in order.”

Jeremiyah was recruited by all the big-time programs, eventually narrowing his list to Texas A&M, Michigan, Oregon and Notre Dame and ultimately to Texas A&M and Notre Dame. His parents said Notre Dame’s smaller environment, along with Jeremiyah’s connection to McCullough, sealed the deal.

Still, they worried about Jeremiyah sharing a room and adjusting to being away from home.

“He’s so big on his space,” L’Tyona said. “It would interrupt his peace. We were a little worried at first when he got to Notre Dame, but he started to adjust.”

Williams also grew up in Missouri and first met Love at a state track meet. He could barely get a word out of Love. When they reunited at another track meet, Love said a little more.

Soon after Williams got to Notre Dame, though, the two grew closer.

“He was a big teacher for me,” Williams said. “He’s not a big talker, but a big thing for me was just working with him. Every day after practice, it’d be me and him on the Jugs machine, catching balls. There’s a lot about J-Love that you might not get to see, but he has a good personality.”

L’Tyona and Jason, both retired sergeants with the St. Louis Police Department, have seen their son grow at Notre Dame. When Jeremiyah was named offensive player of the year at Notre Dame’s annual Echoes Awards banquet, he delivered a “powerful message,” Williams said.

Before Friday’s game, he joked with the “College GameDay” crew about keeping his shirt on for warmups.

Jeremiyah and Jason are even working on a comic book that will chronicle Jeremiyah’s journey to be called “Jeremonstar” or “Yah Love.”

“He had to come out of his shell,” Jason said. “They always said, ‘Don’t change him. He’ll change the world.'”

Love’s “perfectionist” tendencies, as McCullough calls them, have their benefits on the football field. Highlight plays have always come easily for Love, who could dunk a basketball as an eighth grader and almost always was faster and more athletic than his peers.

But at Notre Dame, he has shown the refined focus to work toward becoming a total running back. He added about 20 pounds of what McCullough calls “physical armor” after his freshman season, when he averaged 5.4 yards per carry behind bruising back Audric Estime. Some college teams wanted Love to play cornerback or wide receiver coming out of high school, and he has improved in the slot, practicing with the receivers at times this spring to better understand coverages. He has tripled his receptions total from last season to 24, which ranks fourth on the team.

Love also has improved in the unflashy areas of his position.

“He’s really good in pass protection already,” McCullough said. “He’s a really good route runner. He’s improved his detail a whole lot as far as his run reads are concerned. He was an 88%, 89% guy in run reads. He’s at a 94%, 95% run read clip now. So, just him embracing all of the small details of being an upper-end player, because we know what his goal is.

“I’ve been there, I coached there, so I know what the NFL is about.”

McCullough, who coached with the Kansas City Chiefs as well as with college programs including USC and Indiana, has seen elements of Love’s game in previous protégés Tevin Coleman and Ronald Jones and even power backs such as Estime and Jordan Howard. The good news for Notre Dame is that it will have at least another full season with Love, who could be a Heisman Trophy contender in 2025 after leading the team with 1,057 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns this season.

But the immediate task is the CFP and a national title. He likely will top the scouting report for Georgia’s defense, which ranks 36th nationally against the run and has allowed a 100-yard rusher in four games this season. The Bulldogs have allowed 170 rushing yards or more five times. And they struggled during a two-week stretch against UMass (226 yards, two touchdowns) and Georgia Tech (260 yards, three touchdowns) before throttling Texas’ ground game for the second time this season in the SEC championship game.

“That was only 60 percent of Jeremiyah Love,” Jason said of his son’s performance against Indiana.

Love should be at or near full strength against Georgia. He’s the only FBS running back with a rushing touchdown in every game this season, also a Notre Dame record. Love has five 100-yard rushing performances and two other outings with more than 90 yards despite never eclipsing 16 carries in a game this fall.

“I play with confidence. I play free,” he said. “I’ve just been blessed with great ability. Whenever I’m able to make an explosive or do anything and help this team get stuff going, man, I just feel great.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The fourth quarter had just begun when the chants around the Horseshoe started.

“We want Oregon.”

In the tunnel underneath the Ohio State student section, Rose Bowl staffers readied red roses for the locker room celebration, as Brutus emerged from the catacomb with the first bouquet.

The Ohio State backups still had several minutes to play before Tennessee was officially put away. But the Buckeyes had already mentally moved on to their looming rematch against Oregon in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal on New Year’s Day.

With its emphatic 42-17 victory over the Volunteers in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Ohio State set the stage for a second showdown with the Ducks, who defeated the Buckeyes 32-31 in Eugene on Oct. 12 on the way to an undefeated regular season, Big Ten championship and the CFP’s No. 1 overall seed.

The Buckeyes had every chance to win that October game. But with Ohio State driving in the final seconds, star freshman wideout Jeremiah Smith was flagged for a controversial offensive pass interference call, pushing the Buckeyes out of field goal range. Quarterback Will Howard then inexplicably slid as time expired, ending the game at the Oregon 26-yard line.

“We’ve all been looking forward to this one and for another crack at these guys,” said Howard, who had a rose stem in his teeth as he congratulated teammates coming off the field after the victory over Tennessee. “The way that last one ended doesn’t sit right with me. It still bugs me.”

The Ohio State defense has been a different unit since that first crack at the Ducks.

Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel threw for 341 yards and two touchdowns, as Ohio State’s talented defensive front failed to sack him once and generated pressures just twice. Oregon’s wide receivers also won their one-on-one matchups, most notably against cornerback Denzel Burke, resulting in a barrage of big plays. But since then, the Buckeyes have dominated the opposition. Since the Oregon game, they rank No. 1 nationally in fewest yards allowed per play (3.8), yards given up per game (234.4) and points surrendered per game (11.7).

“We’re looking forward to the opportunity because it was not a great game for us,” defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said of the first Oregon outing. “Quite frankly, the guys got pissed off and it led to a run for us. They used that game as motivation.”

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Ohio State steamrolls Tennessee to set up Oregon rematch

Ohio State impresses in a thumping 42-17 win over Tennessee to set up a date with Oregon in the College Football Playoff.

Ohio State’s explosive offense came out motivated Saturday night after a listless performance in its regular-season finale, a 13-10 loss to Michigan. The Buckeyes also showed what they’re capable of when, as offensive coordinator Chip Kelly put it, they’re “clicking on all cylinders.”

Facing one of the SEC’s top defenses, the Buckeyes produced touchdowns on their first three drives. Tennessee couldn’t cover Smith, who scored a pair of touchdowns and had a game-high 103 receiving yards. The Vols also couldn’t tackle running back TreVeyon Henderson, who generated 134 yards of offense with two scores.

“We called this game more aggressively — there’s no question about that,” coach Ryan Day said. “But also, I think we did some things that maximized what we have in terms of our strengths and minimized our deficiencies.”

Ohio State maximized Howard and the downfield passing attack by featuring arguably college football’s top receiving duo in Smith and wideout Emeka Egbuka, who added 81 receiving yards on five receptions.

Howard responded to the challenge and his poor play against Michigan by completing 24 of 29 passes for 311 yards. His lone interception came on Ohio State’s fourth drive with the Buckeyes already up 21-0. Howard tried to zip a pass to Smith at the back of the end zone. Officials could’ve called defensive pass interference on Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter, who was draped all over Smith. Instead, Tennessee’s Will Brooks was able to corral the tipped ball for the pick before crashing out of bounds.

“I liked the call, I liked how aggressive we were,” Day said. “When you call the game aggressively, something like [that] happens. You have to be willing to live with it.”

The contrast of these past two games underscored how Ohio State’s offense is at its best when it’s aggressive. Combine that with a defense playing as well as any in college football, and it’s easy to see why Buckeyes will head to Pasadena with revenge on their mind — and a national championship run in their sights.

“Yeah, I’m excited, man,” Howard said. “We’re going to go out there and have some fun and let it rip.”