TUCSON, Ariz. — Judge Culpepper is in the midst of the best season of his college football career.
And unbeknownst to him, his nine sacks — the 17th-most in the country — have come while stricken with cancer.
“We were dumbfounded,” said Culpepper’s mother, Monica.
Something was off all season. Culpepper didn’t feel like himself. He was exhausted at times. But he attributed the fatigue, aches, and pains to life as a football player.
On the Monday after the Mid-American Conference championship game, Culpepper had a doctor’s appointment. He found out that he had Stage 1 testicular cancer on Wednesday. The next day he was at the Moffitt Cancer Center in his hometown of Tampa. Culpepper had surgery on Friday and was back in Toledo on Tuesday.
“I feel fantastic,” he said. “So much better.”
The senior defensive tackle is cancer-free and will be a game-time decision for Saturday’s Arizona Bowl, the final college football game of his career. The cancer and subsequent procedure are not expected to impact Culpepper’s long-term health.
His older brother, Rex, a former Syracuse quarterback, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2018. It spread to lymph nodes in his abdomen and he underwent 100 hours of life-saving chemotherapy, eventually returning as the starting QB for the Orange. The same doctor who performed Rex’s surgery operated on Judge.
“There was a level of comfort with Dr. Sexton in particular just because we had dealt so much with him throughout my treatment process,” Rex said. “But there was also a level of comfort with Moffitt Cancer Center because they are on the cutting edge. Most of the comfort came in the fact that we were so ahead of the curve in Judge’s diagnosis. I didn’t have any doubts that Dr. Sexton could deal with Judge’s situation.”
The physical and mental toughness Culpepper displayed wasn’t a surprise to his father, Brad, a former All-American defensive tackle at Florida and a nine-year NFL veteran with the Vikings, Buccaneers, and Bears. Not because Brad was a macho, football-playing dad who demanded strength. He just knows how Judge is built.
“He’s really prideful, and this was his sixth season,” Brad said. “In his mind, I don’t think there was an option to go out and fail or an option to go out and not feel well. I think he was mentally strong enough to push that in the corner and focus on his team and play as best as he could and compartmentalize that his body didn’t feel quite right.”
In an ironic twist, Judge believes the effects of cancer made him prepare harder and be more attentive to film study because he knew that he wasn’t 100 percent on game days.
“My body was a step slower than what it should have been,” said Culpepper, who was selected as a second-team All-American by the College Football Network.
The cancer diagnosis was just the latest chapter in a remarkable life tale.
Judge grew up in a household with Rex, who’s two years older, and a sister, Honor, who’s two years younger and plays basketball at New York University. Along with playing in the NFL, Brad was on two seasons of Survivor, finishing as runner-up in one of them. Monica, a physical therapist, also competed on two seasons of Survivor and also finished second.
Introducing Rex, Judge, and Honor to competition was useless — the trio was born with competitive juices flowing through their veins. But there weren’t unhealthy sibling rivalries.
“No grudges were held,” Judge said.
Instead, the Culpepper children would team up and take on all comers in the neighborhood.
“I can never remember a time where I wasn’t playing sports,” Honor said. “I always wanted to be exactly like my brothers. I’d see them playing baseball and I would say, ‘OK, now I have to play baseball.’ Then they’d play football and basketball. I followed in their footsteps that way. It was never really something that was pushed on us.”
With a dad who played in the NFL, a mom whose tenacity stood out on Survivor, and two siblings who play(ed) college sports, Judge knows athleticism when he sees it. The easy answer when people ask about the best athlete in the family is Brad.
Judge disagrees.
“The right answer is my sister,” he said. “She was whooping up on us boys. She can still beat us all in HORSE. She was tagging along with us when she was really little and is still extremely athletic.”
When the message was relayed to Honor, she gave a sarcastic sister-esque response, calling Judge’s comments sweet. “Maybe at one point I was the best athlete in the family, but I would hand it to Judge,” she said. “I’ve never beat him in a race, which is crazy because I consider myself to be kind of fast, and he’s a big guy. But he’s really quick.”
And then there’s the family history of lawyers and judges, which dates to Judge’s great-grandfather and namesake who was a judge in Florida. His dad, grandfather, and uncle are all attorneys. Another uncle is a judge. A cousin is attending law school. Rex is in his final semester of law school. Honor is applying to law schools. And Judge plans to do the same whenever his football journey ends. For good measure, Judge’s girlfriend is a UT law student.
Academics were just as omnipresent in the Culpepper home as football helmets and basketballs. In the evenings, they would retreat to the reading couch and everyone would have quiet time with a book or magazine.
“Judge was the kid who would say, ‘OK, goodnight,’ and I would kiss him goodnight and go do another load of laundry, and an hour later you’d see the light on in Judge’s room, and he would always be reading,” Monica said. “We kept the encyclopedias in Judge’s room.”
Children have curious minds, and Judge was no different. Brad recalls his young son coming home from school and exclaiming, “The Romans did this! The Greeks did this!” Judge never turned that imagination off, entering college with an insatiable inquisitiveness.
Not many Division I football players are history majors. But that’s where Culpepper’s mind wandered.
“I think back to elementary school, and I really enjoyed learning about people and trying to picture what it would have been like to experience certain events in history, like coming across the water on the Mayflower,” said Culpepper, who played two seasons at Penn State before transferring to Toledo.
“As I’ve gotten older, anthropology is something I really like. It’s interesting to look at ancient people and how they functioned. I definitely like ancient history more than anything. It’s something that’s always fascinated me. You can learn a lot from history and not re-create mistakes from the past. We already have the blueprint.”
When it was time to sign up for a master’s program, Culpepper chose philosophy on a whim. He hasn’t regretted it. But roommate and former high school teammate Tucker Gleason might regret sharing an apartment with Culpepper. (Coach Jason Candle told Gleason he could live off-campus if he could convince Culpepper to transfer to Toledo.)
“Sometimes there were some deep conversations,” Gleason said. “If a random person from off the street wandered into the room, they would have no idea what we were talking about.”
A favorite of Culpepper’s is Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English philosopher who is best known for the book Leviathan, in which he explains an influential formulation of social contract theory. Hobbes, considered one of the founders of modern political philosophy, contributed to history, jurisprudence, geometry, theology, and ethics.
“He had some really interesting things to say about the state of the world, matter, energy, and the connection between body and soul,” Culpepper said. “He was someone I enjoyed studying.”
A smile breaks out on Candle’s face when he’s asked about Culpepper’s beautiful mind.
“He always has a unique perspective on things,” said Candle, who graduated with an education degree from Mount Union. “A guy that’s really comfortable in his own skin and educated on his thought process. I think the guys appreciate having him around. He’s easygoing. Sometimes he has a really philosophical approach to things, which is fun. His teammates appreciate the serious side and the lightheartedness.”
As you can imagine, Survivor is — or was — a popular dinner table conversation. Monica and Brad actually appeared on the show the exact same amount of episodes — Monica was voted on fifth and finished second in her two appearances, Brad was voted off fifth and finished second in his two appearances.
Monica was the homecoming queen at the University of Florida, but she isn’t to be mistaken for what many may think of a football player’s wife. She became the first female Survivor contestant to win the food challenge, a meal that included such delicacies as cow eyeballs and pig intestines.
“My mom is tough as nails,” Judge said.
That trait has been passed down to the next generation.
“More than anything, my motivating factor was I have TV cameras around me all day, and I have to show my kids and my husband that dad is a badass, but mom is a badass, too,” Monica said. “So there was no crying or complaining about anything. It was like, I’m going to eat more mealworms, grub worms, pig intestines, and cow eyeballs than everybody else, and I’m going to be the only woman in the history of the show to win the food challenge.
“I think those qualities are what helped Judge say, ‘I’m playing the best football of my life. We have to win this MAC championship. Something is not right, but I’ll figure it out at the end of the season.’ And to play like he did and have no idea that he had cancer. Do I think my kids have those qualities? Hell yes.”
The sermon from Monica echoed throughout Judge’s 2023 season, as the 6-foot-4 wrecking ball pestered opposing quarterbacks on a weekly basis. Culpepper took them to the ground with, yes, grit. But it’s more than just pluck and freelancing. Most evident is the persistence and unflinching determination, the same attributes Monica revealed in the Philippines on Survivor.
Culpepper will suit up one last time in midnight blue and gold. He laments the targeting penalty that cut short his MAC championship game. But an overdose of perspective came a few days later.
No matter, Culpepper will be in Arizona Stadium. Thankful, sure. And yearning.
“I have one more guaranteed opportunity,” he said. “I just want to go out and do my best.”
First Published December 27, 2023, 7:26 p.m.
