One of college basketball's best players is fighting the good fight against mental illness.

Royce White has led Iowa State to the doorstep of its first NCAA tournament birth in seven years, but it's his battle off the court that is drawing well-deserved attention. White is one of nearly 40 million Americans dealing with an anxiety disorder.

The 20-year-old has been on medication since he was an early teen.

"Anxiety isn’t really something you can measure," White told the Des Moines Register. "That’s why it’s so hard to diagnose, so hard to pinpoint. If I didn’t take my medication, any number of things could happen -- it could affect my mind, and my body. I could get the sweats.

"What anxiety is, is your mind telling your body that there’s a threat, so it produces adrenalin so you can fight off that threat. That could make you do anything, conceptually, but I’m not a dumb individual. I wouldn’t do something off-the-wall like skydive."

White is afraid of flying, but unlike retired broadcaster John Madden, who traveled by bus, he travels by plane with the Cyclones around the Big 12. Royce tells the Des Moines Register he will "ask the flight attendants 10 times if the flight's going to be all right."

J.K. Rowling said, "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

A New York woman made all the right choices when she successfully used social media to return a camera full of Super Bowl memories.

The first-grade teacher from Long Island was in Indianapolis to witness the Giants' upset of the Patriots earlier this month when a fellow fan asked her to take a photo of his family with his digital camera. In the excitement of the moment, Mary Ellen McPaul forgot to give the camera back to the random fan -- instead putting it in her purse by mistake.

Once she became aware of her error, the teacher wanted to do the right thing, but she had no idea who the owner of the camera was.

"I was just so sad that this man wasn't going to have photos with his family" McPaul told FOX 59 Indianapolis. "I thought, 'I have to do something.'"

By Darren Rovell
CNBC.com

It started just like that.

Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown had arrived in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl with some time on his hands. So he told his fans where he was. Seth Paladin, a die-hard Steelers fan, had planned his normal Tuesday. He was about to start his day as a sales representative for home security company ADT. But the fan in him decided to be bold, as he quickly scanned his Twitter timeline before going out. Not expecting much, he tweeted at the Steelers Pro Bowler, with 85,000 followers. He wanted to see him in person.

"When I first tweeted at him, I thought there was a very slim chance that he'd see it," Paladin said. "When he replied, I thought to myself, 'This is crazy.'"

What happened next is the most amazing story of athlete-fan interaction in the short history of social media.

That's a pretty high bar, by the way.

Kevin Durant, in the mood to play flag football during the lockout, was told there was a game at nearby Oklahoma State. He showed up. Chad Ochocinco treated 66 of his Twitter followers to a fancy dinner. Shaquille O'Neal offered tickets to a game for anyone who tagged him in a mall. He gave away 30 tickets that day.

But no professional athlete has ever spent the kind of time with a fan that Antonio Brown spent with Seth Paladin during Super Bowl week.

After a series of replies, direct messages, texts, and calls, Brown eventually invited Paladin to his hotel room. They immediately hit it off. With an open schedule, the two of them headed over to a local gym.

Slideshow: Die-Hard Celeb Sports Fans

There, Brown showed Paladin, a Pittsburgh native, his workout routine. They lifted weights. They swam laps in the pool.

And if the story stopped there, it would have been remarkable. But it was far from over.

That night, Paladin invited Brown to his friend's birthday at the upscale chain, The Capital Grille. Brown, who signed a three-year, $1.29 million contract as a sixth-round draft pick in 2010 and made a second-year minimum of $450,000 this past season, graciously picked up the entire bill full of drinks, appetizers, entrees and dessert.

Thousands of Americans rummage through yard sales every weekend in the hopes of finding hidden gems, but one NFL fan stumbled upon an NFL treasure.

A diehard Carolina Panthers supporter found a Super Bowl playbook from his beloved NFL franchise in bags earmarked for the dumpster. And that's not all he unearthed on his shopping adventure. Matt Rowell told NewsChannel 36 he found sensitive financial information from star players -- as well as former Panthers defensive tackle Kris Jenkins' size 16 cleats.

Quarterback Jake Delhomme led the 2003 Panthers to an 11-5 regular-season record and a playoff run which ended with New England Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri's 41-yard game-winning field goal in Super Bowl 38.