Kurt Kittner (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        Quarterback Kurt Kittner led Illinois back from five second-half deficits last season. But Kittner, who has been talked about as a potential draft choice by the Bengals more than any other quarterback available, shrugs off compliments. Rallying to win football games, he says, is nothing compared to what his mother has overcome.

        In 1983, when Kurt was 3, his mother, Lee Trantin, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She has to eat intravenously at times and use a wheelchair when she suffers brain seizures.

        In 1986, with three sons under age 7, Trantin had to get a restraining order against her now ex-husband to keep him away from the family home in suburban Chicago. Receiving only limited public assistance after her marriage ended, she supported herself and the boys by doing payroll for a cleaning company and taking other temporary accounting work.

        So when Kittner threw three first-half interceptions at Purdue and fell behind 13-0, he didn't panic. Illinois won 38-13, and Kittner threw for 299 yards.

        “You learn that, if you throw a pick, you don't play well, it's not the end of the world,” he said. “You look back home and look what she's gone through, and it could be much worse.”

        Kittner says he gets strength from his mother. She doesn't see it that way.

        “I guess,” said Trantin, 47. “I felt I was getting strength from my sons. When I don't want to get up, I close my eyes and see (Kurt's)

        eyes (when he was little), and he's saying, "Mommy, what do we do now?'”

        Trantin answered in word and deed. “I told him he has a choice: You can stay down or get up. We don't ask why or if. We go with what is.”

        A defining moment for Kittner came as a Schaumburg High School senior. He separated his thumb diving into the end zone but played the rest of the half. At halftime, the team doctor told Kittner he couldn't play quarterback for the rest of the season. Kittner had torn ligaments and tendons.

        “He was bawling his eyes out. The pain was emotional, not physical,” said Schaumburg coach Tom Cerasani, whose wife also has MS.

        Kittner committed to play at Illinois, where he developed a bond with coach Ron Turner, whose sister has MS.

        “We never talked about it, but it helped,” Kittner said of his coaches' experience with MS. “They just kind of knew. If you said you were having family stuff to take care of, they understood. It was unspoken.”

        Coming off an 0-11 season, Turner turned to Kittner, who became the first true freshman to start at quarterback at Illinois since Bernie Krueger in 1946. Kittner threw one touchdown pass and seven interceptions. As a sophomore, he threw 24 TDs and five interceptions.

        Kittner's life experiences have taught him a simple lesson that is often difficult to learn: Control what you can control. His maturity is one attribute that has attracted the Bengals.

        “On draft day, I'm going to go golfing and watch the spring game (at Illinois) and have my cell phone on me in case I get a call,” he said. “It doesn't matter when you get picked. All that matters is when you get into camp (and making) the most of the opportunity when you get there.”

(Kurt Kittner draft profiles at ESPN.com | NFL.com)
Jan. 15 story: Illinois QB catches Bengals' attention

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