``I thought I was going to just break into pieces it hurt so bad,'' the former running back said of the eight chemotherapy sessions he received after being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Green, 68, who shared the backfield with Jim Brown on Cleveland's last championship team in 1964, underwent a mastectomy in September 2005 and months of chemotherapy that ended in March. He now wants other men to be aware that breast cancer is not a disease that only afflicts women.

``When it happens to you as a male, it blows you away,'' he said. ``Your world caves in on you when you learn something like that. You don't know anything but the fact that you've got it.''

Both of Green's older sisters had breast cancer. One died after the disease returned.

``I remember when my sisters were going through it,'' said Green, who runs his own automotive company in suburban Dayton. ``I'm like every man. You think about it, and you read about, and you consider that it is a disease for women.''