Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 174. Devon Still, Former NFL Player & Advocate for Childhood Cancer Awareness

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174. Devon Still, Former NFL Player & Advocate for Childhood Cancer Awareness · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: Life is not about how long you live with somebody
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Speaker 1: or how long you have somebody in your life, but
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Speaker 1: it's about the amount of memories and moments you create,
0:08
Speaker 1: because that's what life is all about. You don't remember
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Speaker 1: your whole entire life. You remember moments of your life,
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Speaker 1: So you got to try to create as many memorable
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Speaker 1: and positive moments as possible with the ones that you
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Speaker 1: love and care about.
0:33
Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, Emily and Bodi.
0:35
Speaker 3: Here you are listening to episode one seventy four of Hurdle,
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Speaker 3: a wellness focused podcast where I sit down with inspiring
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Speaker 3: individuals to talk about big ones, tough moments, and everything
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Speaker 3: in between. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation,
0:51
Speaker 3: and candid discussions with everyone from top athletes and CEOs
0:55
Speaker 3: to aspiring entrepreneurs on what it really takes to follow
0:59
Speaker 3: your passions.
1:00
Speaker 2: My mission is.
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Speaker 3: Simple to inspire you to be your best self, move
1:05
Speaker 3: with intention, and have some fun along the way. For
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Speaker 3: today's episode, I am so excited to be bringing you
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Speaker 3: my conversation with Devin Still.
1:16
Speaker 2: He is a former NFL player.
1:19
Speaker 3: He's also an author, a speaker, a co host of
1:22
Speaker 3: the Relationships podcast that he has with his wife and
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Speaker 3: someone that I have been hoping to have the opportunity.
1:29
Speaker 2: To chat with for some time now.
1:32
Speaker 3: Devin's story is one of perseverance and a lot of
1:39
Speaker 3: really hard times. Back in twenty fourteen, Devin was living
1:43
Speaker 3: out his dream of playing football on the pro level
1:47
Speaker 3: when he got the frightening news that his daughter, Leah
1:52
Speaker 3: was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma and given a fifty fifty.
1:57
Speaker 2: Chance to survive.
1:59
Speaker 3: In today's episode, he talks me through that journey and
2:02
Speaker 3: what it was like for him to feel absolutely helpless
2:05
Speaker 3: at her bedside, how the days felt like they lasted forever,
2:10
Speaker 3: but also took no time at all. That the first
2:12
Speaker 3: week in the hospital it felt like an eternity. He
2:15
Speaker 3: talks to me about what he learned about the importance
2:18
Speaker 3: of vulnerability and the difficult decisions he had to make
2:22
Speaker 3: at times to leave his daughter's bedside so that he
2:26
Speaker 3: could play and keep health insurance to pay for her treatment.
2:30
Speaker 3: Silver Lining to this story, Leah is now six years
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Speaker 3: cancer free, which is absolutely, absolutely amazing, and I'm so
2:40
Speaker 3: grateful to have had the opportunity just to learn a
2:43
Speaker 3: little bit about what they went through and share that
2:46
Speaker 3: with all of you. Now, this opportunity came across my
2:50
Speaker 3: way because Devin recently partnered with United Therapeutics to launch
2:56
Speaker 3: a new educational initiative called Brathing Neurobetoma. It shines a
3:01
Speaker 3: light on this particular childhood cancer that many don't know
3:05
Speaker 3: much about. This episode is a bit shorter than your
3:09
Speaker 3: usual Monday listen, but like I said, so many unbelievable
3:14
Speaker 3: takeaways in here, so much perspective that I know I
3:18
Speaker 3: needed to hear, and I have no doubts is going
3:22
Speaker 3: to help you keep pushing through the hurdles that are
3:24
Speaker 3: coming your way. Listening back to this episode, I'm pretty
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Speaker 3: sure I said the word wow at least maybe twenty
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Speaker 3: two times. Make sure you're following along over on social
3:35
Speaker 3: at Hurdle podcast. I am also over at Emily Badi.
3:38
Speaker 3: This is the last week of episodes as part of
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Speaker 3: season six. Hurdle will be taking a one week break
3:45
Speaker 3: and coming back in a big way on September thirteenth
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Speaker 3: with a guest that you all have been asking me
3:52
Speaker 3: for to have on the show for a long long
3:55
Speaker 3: time now. If you haven't done so yet, do me
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Speaker 3: a solid. Make sure to rate and review the show
3:59
Speaker 3: in Apple Podcasts.
4:01
Speaker 2: Give it five stars.
4:02
Speaker 3: Tell the world why you keep coming back week after week.
4:07
Speaker 2: And with that, let's get to hurdling today. I am
4:17
Speaker 2: sitting down with Devin Still.
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Speaker 3: He's a pro athlete, he's an entrepreneur, he's a motivational speaker.
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Speaker 2: You have a podcast. Now, how you doing, man?
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Speaker 4: I'm doing good? How are you?
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Speaker 2: I'm so good.
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Speaker 3: I'm so excited to be sat down here with you
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Speaker 3: with you today. Something I didn't say in that intro
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Speaker 3: just now, you're also an advocate for childhood cancer awareness
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Speaker 3: after dealing with your own battle within your family when
4:42
Speaker 3: it comes to your daughter. So why don't we kick
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Speaker 3: off and talk to me a little bit about what
4:47
Speaker 3: it means to you today to be an advocate when
4:49
Speaker 3: it comes to childhood cancer awareness.
4:51
Speaker 1: It means a lot to me and my family because
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Speaker 1: what I really think it does is it gives us
4:55
Speaker 1: purpose to our pain. Like me and my family, we
4:58
Speaker 1: had to endure a lot of pain when Lea was
5:00
Speaker 1: first diagnosed. But to look back and see the platform
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Speaker 1: that we have created to help other families who are
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Speaker 1: going through their battle with cancer, it's amazing to be
5:09
Speaker 1: able to garnish these type of partnerships where we can
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Speaker 1: give families resources to overcome their battle with nor blastoma.
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Speaker 4: It means a lot to us.
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Speaker 3: And I know that this happened for you in twenty fourteen,
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Speaker 3: and when it happened, you returned to the football field
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Speaker 3: on the back of your jersey wearing the message don't
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Speaker 3: be scared, be strong. So talk to me about that
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Speaker 3: message and what that message really means to you.
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Speaker 1: Just to get people to understand that we don't always
5:39
Speaker 1: control what life throws at us, but we can control
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Speaker 1: our attitude towards whatever obstacles that were going through. And
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Speaker 1: I know initially, when Lea was first diagnosed with cancer,
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Speaker 1: I was scared. When I heard the word cancer, all
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Speaker 1: I thought about was death. I thought about what my
5:54
Speaker 1: life would be like without Lea. But I think true
5:57
Speaker 1: strength is understanding that you know it's okay to be
5:59
Speaker 1: vulnerab it's okay to experience those moments and allow yourself
6:03
Speaker 1: to have weak moments, but you don't allow those weak
6:05
Speaker 1: moments to turn into a weak mindset, and you decide
6:08
Speaker 1: to pick yourself up off the floor and continue to
6:10
Speaker 1: push forward.
6:12
Speaker 3: So let's go back and do a little bit of
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Speaker 3: context and talk me through what your life was like
6:17
Speaker 3: before cancer became a word that was in your regular vocabulary.
6:22
Speaker 4: Yeah.
6:22
Speaker 1: So I was living out my dream of playing in
6:25
Speaker 1: the NFL. Since I was thirteen, I had dreams of
6:27
Speaker 1: playing in the NFL, and I worked extremely hard and
6:30
Speaker 1: overcame a lot of obstacles in order to make it
6:33
Speaker 1: to the NFL. And never did I think that once
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Speaker 1: I got there and I was living out my dreams,
6:38
Speaker 1: that my family would be hit with something like this.
6:41
Speaker 1: But you know, cancer is it knows no race, it
6:46
Speaker 1: knows no gender, like anybody. It doesn't care about your
6:49
Speaker 1: socioeconomic status, like anybody can be impacted by cancer. And
6:54
Speaker 1: that's what Li's battle with cancer taught me. So I
6:56
Speaker 1: just try to be responsible with the platform that I
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Speaker 1: have now to not make it all about me and
7:01
Speaker 1: my family, but to let people know what it's like
7:03
Speaker 1: for families in general who are battling childhood cancer, specifically
7:07
Speaker 1: noual blastoma.
7:09
Speaker 3: Where were you when you found out that something was
7:12
Speaker 3: off with your daughter.
7:15
Speaker 4: I was in Delaware.
7:16
Speaker 1: I had flew back from Cincinnati during our off season
7:20
Speaker 1: workouts because Leah was having a dance recital that night.
7:24
Speaker 1: It was Monday night, June second, and I had put
7:26
Speaker 1: her into a dance class and gymnastics that off season,
7:30
Speaker 1: and she was finally about to show us all the
7:32
Speaker 1: hard work that she had put in over the past
7:35
Speaker 1: couple of months. But that morning, on June second, she
7:38
Speaker 1: woke up and she wasn't feeling well. She was running
7:40
Speaker 1: the fever, she wasn't eating, so I ended up taking
7:43
Speaker 1: her to the emergency room and then they sent us
7:45
Speaker 1: to a children's hospital, and that's when they broke the
7:47
Speaker 1: news to us.
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Speaker 3: Wow. Wow, I can't even try to fathom what that
7:53
Speaker 3: ride to the emergency room must have been like for
7:56
Speaker 3: you at the onset of this.
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Speaker 2: What kind of symptoms was she experiencing?
8:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, so initially the drive to the emergency room wasn't
8:04
Speaker 1: bad because I had no idea what was going to
8:06
Speaker 1: happen once we got there. So she was running a fever,
8:10
Speaker 1: and she was very lethargic, and she wasn't eating any
8:13
Speaker 1: of her food. So I'm thinking that she may have
8:15
Speaker 1: something like an air infection or something right, and I'm
8:18
Speaker 1: trying to take her to the doctors with the hopes that,
8:20
Speaker 1: you know it's an air infection, they can give her
8:22
Speaker 1: some type of medicine to make her feel better. So
8:24
Speaker 1: she can go and do her dance beside it, because
8:27
Speaker 1: I know how much she was looking forward to this moment.
8:30
Speaker 1: So at the first emergency room we went to, they
8:34
Speaker 1: took her blood, they ran some test on her, and
8:37
Speaker 1: they didn't see anything wrong with her. And then I
8:39
Speaker 1: started to tell her about hip pain that she had
8:41
Speaker 1: been experiencing, and I thought it came from being a
8:44
Speaker 1: gymnastis class falling off the balance beam. So they touched
8:48
Speaker 1: her hip and she jumped from them, and they initially
8:51
Speaker 1: thought that she just had an infection in her hip socket,
8:53
Speaker 1: which sometimes happens to kids who are growing too fast.
8:56
Speaker 1: And since I'm not the smallest guy in the rooms
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Speaker 1: in most rooms that I go in, I thought that
9:00
Speaker 1: my daughter must be just getting my size or getting
9:03
Speaker 1: my hype, so I didn't think anything of it. So
9:05
Speaker 1: when they sent us to a children's hospital that was
9:07
Speaker 1: literally five minutes down the road, they also ran some
9:10
Speaker 1: test on her. They came in and told us that
9:14
Speaker 1: they think that it can be ten different things, and
9:16
Speaker 1: the last thing they said was cancer, And I didn't
9:18
Speaker 1: pay it any mind because I'm like, if it's that
9:20
Speaker 1: great of a chance of being cancer or be higher
9:22
Speaker 1: up on the list, sure enough, they did an ultrasound
9:25
Speaker 1: of her abdomen where she was having the pain, and
9:28
Speaker 1: they saw the mask in her abdomen. They ran cat
9:31
Speaker 1: skins and MRIs and they found out that it was
9:33
Speaker 1: stage four nor blastoma.
9:35
Speaker 2: Wow. Wow, Do you have any history of cancer in
9:38
Speaker 2: your family?
9:39
Speaker 4: The first person in my family that I ever know
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Speaker 4: I had cancer?
9:42
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
9:43
Speaker 3: And I mean it's hard enough, it's hard at any
9:45
Speaker 3: age right to find out about this, But for you,
9:47
Speaker 3: as a father to hear this about your daughter, I
9:50
Speaker 3: would imagine that you probably felt pretty helpless.
9:54
Speaker 4: Man.
9:55
Speaker 1: I remember when the doctor first came out the room
9:58
Speaker 1: because after a while, I've been been playing football since
10:00
Speaker 1: I was thirteen. I've had a lot of injuries, had
10:03
Speaker 1: a lot of MRIs cat skins. I know how long
10:05
Speaker 1: they're supposed to take. So when we were sitting in
10:08
Speaker 1: the lobby and we was in access of an hour
10:11
Speaker 1: and thirty minutes, two hours, I prepared myself mentally, so
10:14
Speaker 1: I thought to hear the doctors come and tell me
10:16
Speaker 1: that Lea had cancer. But when the doctor said that,
10:19
Speaker 1: it like, the words hit me different when I actually
10:22
Speaker 1: heard it come out of her mouth. And I remember
10:25
Speaker 1: her telling me that she was going to go to
10:27
Speaker 1: the lobby to tell my parents what they had just
10:30
Speaker 1: found out. And I was like, no, no, no, no.
10:32
Speaker 1: If they going to hear something like this, it has
10:34
Speaker 1: to come from somebody that they love and care about.
10:38
Speaker 1: And I remember going to the room and I tried
10:40
Speaker 1: to open up my mouth to say it, and I couldn't.
10:43
Speaker 1: I just fell down to the ground and I just
10:45
Speaker 1: started crying. And I remember my dad like running over
10:48
Speaker 1: to me and rubbing my back, asking me what was wrong,
10:51
Speaker 1: and I just blurted out the words cancer, and.
10:53
Speaker 3: They just knew, Oh my god, the chills. It's so
10:58
Speaker 3: interesting what you just said about preparing yourself to hear
11:01
Speaker 3: the worst. And that's such an interesting approach, right, because
11:05
Speaker 3: I do think that someone said to me once, if
11:08
Speaker 3: you don't have a plan B, then you don't have
11:10
Speaker 3: a plan.
11:11
Speaker 2: And I think this is a similar scenario, right.
11:13
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously, dealing with such awful news, such an
11:17
Speaker 3: awful thing to prepare yourself for. But had you always
11:20
Speaker 3: been that way of trying to really like think of
11:23
Speaker 3: all different aspects of a situation to prepare yourself like that?
11:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that you know, just my football background,
11:30
Speaker 1: me going through, you know, different injuries throughout my years
11:33
Speaker 1: of trying to make it to the NFL helped me
11:35
Speaker 1: to see that you have to be flexible in your
11:38
Speaker 1: mindset and you know the goals and stuff that you have.
11:41
Speaker 1: So when I realized that my life was going to
11:44
Speaker 1: go for a huge change, a huge pivot, when Le's
11:49
Speaker 1: MRIs and cat skins was taken so long, that was
11:51
Speaker 1: something I tried to do in order to prepare myself for.
11:54
Speaker 1: But I don't think you can ever prepare yourself for
11:57
Speaker 1: a doctor telling you that your child has cancer.
12:00
Speaker 2: Definitely not.
12:00
Speaker 3: So walk us through then what happens over the next
12:05
Speaker 3: couple months year.
12:09
Speaker 1: The first week feels like the first couple months. The
12:12
Speaker 1: first week in hospital feels like you've been in there
12:15
Speaker 1: forever because you're just trying to get acclimated to the
12:18
Speaker 1: new environment that you're in now, Like you're trying to
12:21
Speaker 1: catch up on as much information about childhood can to
12:25
Speaker 1: about nor blastom, about different treatment option. That's just like
12:29
Speaker 1: a whirl when it's thrown at you and you feel
12:31
Speaker 1: like you've been in the hospital forever. But after initial shot,
12:34
Speaker 1: whereas off you have to make that decision on what
12:38
Speaker 1: kind of treatments that you're going to give your child,
12:40
Speaker 1: and when you're just thrown into this type of battle,
12:43
Speaker 1: you don't really know, you don't have the answers. And
12:46
Speaker 1: I didn't feel like during my time that there were
12:48
Speaker 1: a lot of resources out there to help me navigate.
12:51
Speaker 1: So I learned a lot on Google, and you see
12:54
Speaker 1: a lot of scary stuff on Google that it just
12:57
Speaker 1: messages with you mentally. Always say and my interviews that
13:01
Speaker 1: I wish that they would have had a playbook on
13:03
Speaker 1: how to deal with norm blastoma, how to deal with
13:06
Speaker 1: childhood cancer, but it wasn't there. So when I heard
13:09
Speaker 1: about United Therapeutics and I heard about their book series
13:13
Speaker 1: and Zar it takes off and I had a chance
13:14
Speaker 1: to read it, it was like, man, there's finally a
13:18
Speaker 1: playbook for this. Like when I read it, I felt
13:21
Speaker 1: like it was the story of Leah and my family
13:24
Speaker 1: going through the battle, and I was like, this is
13:25
Speaker 1: exactly what famies who are battling nord blastoma need.
13:29
Speaker 3: Right And what you're talking about here is the new
13:31
Speaker 3: launch of Braving Neuroblastoma, which is an educational initiative to
13:35
Speaker 3: support and provide these comprehensive resources to families impacted by
13:41
Speaker 3: what drastically impacted your family.
13:44
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously, no better.
13:45
Speaker 3: Opportunity or a partnership for you guys after what you've
13:48
Speaker 3: been through.
13:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly like I said, we tell people all the time,
13:52
Speaker 1: Leah six years cancer free at the moment, and just
13:55
Speaker 1: because her battle with cancer is over doesn't mean that
13:58
Speaker 1: the battle against childhood cancer is over. So whenever we
14:00
Speaker 1: can find partnerships to really help advance the fight against
14:03
Speaker 1: childhood cancer, to fight against nord blastoma, we jump on it.
14:07
Speaker 1: And United Therapeutics provided us that opportunity with Brave and
14:11
Speaker 1: nord Blastomer.
14:12
Speaker 3: You mentioned a buzzword before that I think is really beautiful,
14:16
Speaker 3: and that buzzword is vulnerability. What has this experience with
14:22
Speaker 3: your daughter taught you about the importance of vulnerability?
14:27
Speaker 4: Vulnerability is true strength.
14:30
Speaker 1: I think during sports I learned the opposite, that you
14:33
Speaker 1: don't allow people to see your weakness, that if you
14:35
Speaker 1: get hurt, you just jump right back up and you
14:37
Speaker 1: continue to move. And in the beginning I took that
14:40
Speaker 1: approach with my daughter's battle with cancer. It's like, all right, Devin,
14:44
Speaker 1: you the man of the house. You got to be
14:46
Speaker 1: the rock of the family. Like even in the times
14:48
Speaker 1: where you're hurting, where you stressed out, you can't show
14:51
Speaker 1: it because you have to give your family that confidence
14:53
Speaker 1: that we're going to make it through that. And I
14:55
Speaker 1: thought I was doing the right thing. But when I
14:58
Speaker 1: was writing my book and I sitting down and I
15:00
Speaker 1: was talking to Lea, with my co author, I started
15:03
Speaker 1: to tell him about that experiences that I would have
15:05
Speaker 1: where Lee was in Philadelphia, I would be in Cincinnati
15:09
Speaker 1: and I would FaceTime her, and all I really wanted
15:11
Speaker 1: to do was to like hugger and kiss her because
15:14
Speaker 1: she would be hooked up to machines, she would be
15:16
Speaker 1: getting chemo, her hair would be falling out, and I
15:19
Speaker 1: was five hundred miles away trying to get the insurance
15:21
Speaker 1: to pay for her treatment. So I couldn't be there
15:23
Speaker 1: every single day like I wanted to be. So instead
15:26
Speaker 1: of me crying on the phone, I would wait till
15:28
Speaker 1: we got off the phone and I would start crying.
15:31
Speaker 1: And when I was telling this story, Leah looked at
15:33
Speaker 1: me and was like, Dad, I was doing the same thing.
15:36
Speaker 1: Like I would try to hold it together on FaceTime
15:38
Speaker 1: for you and be strong, but I wanted you to
15:41
Speaker 1: be there so bad. So when we would hang up
15:43
Speaker 1: the phone. I would go into the bathroom inside of
15:46
Speaker 1: the hospital room, and I would just break down and cry.
15:49
Speaker 4: And it was in that.
15:50
Speaker 1: Moment that I realized that I had I should have
15:53
Speaker 1: been more vulnerable during that time, because it would have
15:55
Speaker 1: gave her permission to open up and share some of
15:58
Speaker 1: the feelings that she was going experiencing.
16:01
Speaker 2: What a warrior you were raising.
16:03
Speaker 3: You mentioned here being over in Cincinnati and having to
16:08
Speaker 3: be in Cincinnati instead of right next to your baby
16:10
Speaker 3: girl because of the fact that you needed to have
16:13
Speaker 3: this health insurance and work and provide for your family.
16:16
Speaker 3: I mean, I cannot even imagine the internal struggle that
16:20
Speaker 3: goes hand in hand with not being physically present there
16:23
Speaker 3: but knowing that you were doing the right thing.
16:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough, and so many families have to make
16:28
Speaker 1: that decision where you have to leave your child's bedside
16:31
Speaker 1: in order to go back to work so that you
16:33
Speaker 1: can keep the things going in the house, so you
16:35
Speaker 1: can have a home to go home to when you're
16:37
Speaker 1: not in the hospital batting cancer. So it's a tough decision.
16:41
Speaker 1: But I'm just thankful that there's a lot of resources
16:43
Speaker 1: out there now that can help families get through that
16:46
Speaker 1: journey of brave and nor blastom.
16:49
Speaker 3: And it's not even just on that note of vulnerability,
16:53
Speaker 3: the takeaway of being vulnerable with Leah during that time.
16:56
Speaker 3: I'm so sure since going public and speaking about your journey,
17:01
Speaker 3: which obviously here has a very happy through line.
17:04
Speaker 2: As you said, she's been six years cancer free.
17:06
Speaker 3: Now for you, this vulnerability extends to how you carry
17:10
Speaker 3: yourself today and the conversations that you're having, right, I mean,
17:13
Speaker 3: has there been an instance or a circumstance. I'm sure
17:16
Speaker 3: so many that this vulnerability has come back to you
17:20
Speaker 3: in such a beautiful and rewarding way.
17:22
Speaker 4: Yeah.
17:23
Speaker 1: So, I would say about a couple of weeks ago,
17:28
Speaker 1: I wrote something on Instagram. I had made a comment
17:31
Speaker 1: under a post, and I think I was talking about
17:35
Speaker 1: the struggles that I went through when Lee was battling cancer.
17:38
Speaker 1: And I had a dad comment under my comment and say, man,
17:42
Speaker 1: I know what you're going through because my child, my daughter,
17:46
Speaker 1: just got diagnosed last week. So I reached out to
17:49
Speaker 1: him and I was like, Hey, send me your number
17:52
Speaker 1: in my DM so I can reach out to you
17:54
Speaker 1: and just be of assistance to you. So he sent
17:57
Speaker 1: me the number and I got on the phone with him.
17:58
Speaker 1: He's like, I never thought that you were actually call me,
18:01
Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, the platform that I have or
18:03
Speaker 1: the verification check mark, that that really doesn't mean anything.
18:07
Speaker 3: Like.
18:08
Speaker 1: I'm calling you as another dad who understands what it's
18:11
Speaker 1: like to feel hopeless and helpless when your daughter is
18:14
Speaker 1: battling in cancer, and I just want to give you
18:17
Speaker 1: some insight of what I experienced in case it may
18:19
Speaker 1: help you along your journey. So me being able to
18:22
Speaker 1: be vulnerable on that phone call with another man when
18:25
Speaker 1: we're taught to be so strong, especially around other men,
18:28
Speaker 1: I think really helped him out on that phone call
18:31
Speaker 1: and doing his journey with his daughter battling cancer.
18:34
Speaker 3: Talk to me about I guess at that point what
18:38
Speaker 3: was the finish line? Obviously I feel like you cross
18:41
Speaker 3: a couple of finish lines in a battle like this.
18:43
Speaker 3: But when did the news start to really start looking
18:46
Speaker 3: up for your family?
18:50
Speaker 1: Interesting, it was about two months after the news look
18:53
Speaker 1: very bad. So I had put Lea in two clinical
18:57
Speaker 1: trials during her battle with cancer. The first first one
19:00
Speaker 1: it didn't work. We ended up getting scans done and
19:03
Speaker 1: found out that the cancer has spread all over her body.
19:07
Speaker 1: That initially was just in her hip, and then it
19:09
Speaker 1: had spread to her chest, her arms, her neck, and
19:13
Speaker 1: it was even in her skull. And if there was
19:15
Speaker 1: ever a time where I thought I was going to
19:17
Speaker 1: lose my daughter, it was during that moment. But I've
19:20
Speaker 1: been taughting football that you got to fight for four quarters,
19:23
Speaker 1: that you don't give up, no matter how tired you are,
19:25
Speaker 1: no matter how much pain you're in, doesn't matter what
19:28
Speaker 1: the scoreboard says. You got to give it everything you
19:30
Speaker 1: have for four quarters. So that's exactly what we did.
19:33
Speaker 1: We put her into another clinical trial. Two months later
19:36
Speaker 1: she was in complete remission. So, Wow, it just came
19:40
Speaker 1: out of nowhere. It came out of nowhere because I
19:42
Speaker 1: thought we were headed for an extremely dark time.
19:45
Speaker 2: Wow.
19:46
Speaker 3: Obviously so important for her for you to be on
19:51
Speaker 3: the other side of that phone or when you could
19:53
Speaker 3: be with her when it came for you and what
19:56
Speaker 3: you needed and your support network. Where were you looking
19:59
Speaker 3: to for that support?
20:01
Speaker 1: I didn't have to look too far, to be honest
20:03
Speaker 1: with you. First, it started within my household with my wife,
20:07
Speaker 1: who was my backbone during that time, because trying to,
20:10
Speaker 1: you know, balance football, trying to understand what was happening
20:14
Speaker 1: with my life, what my daughter was going through. It
20:16
Speaker 1: was tough, but she was there to really speak life
20:19
Speaker 1: into me during the times where I felt hopeless. From
20:23
Speaker 1: you know, the football fans, the supporters in Cincinnati, to
20:26
Speaker 1: the supporters around the league, to the supporters around the world,
20:29
Speaker 1: I really didn't have to look far. My family really
20:32
Speaker 1: stepped up for me during that time, and now it's
20:35
Speaker 1: my job to pay that forward to other families who
20:37
Speaker 1: are still battling nor blastom or any former childhood cancer.
20:42
Speaker 3: How have you been able to really reinvent yourself after
20:46
Speaker 3: I would say this chapter and also after football. I mean,
20:50
Speaker 3: life has definitely definitely taken some turns for you, many
20:54
Speaker 3: of which that you did not in the least expect.
20:58
Speaker 1: Right, one of the things that really helped me make
21:00
Speaker 1: that pivot or make that transition is just learning to
21:03
Speaker 1: recycle my pain and use it for greatness, to use
21:06
Speaker 1: it for purpose, to use it for impact. Because we
21:09
Speaker 1: had to go through a lot, not just with Lia's
21:11
Speaker 1: battle with cancer, but from injuries. I faced a lot
21:14
Speaker 1: of crazy things in my life, and definitely le Lia's
21:17
Speaker 1: battle with cancer was one of the toughest things, but
21:19
Speaker 1: just trying to understand why we went through that. Trying
21:23
Speaker 1: to find the purpose in our struggle, in our pain
21:26
Speaker 1: and use it to make an impact on other people's
21:29
Speaker 1: lives have helped me turn that page in my life
21:32
Speaker 1: because it's hard when you've dedicated yourself for something for
21:36
Speaker 1: thirteen years. It's hard to walk away when you don't
21:38
Speaker 1: get the outcome that you wanted to have. But realizing
21:41
Speaker 1: that if you're still alive, if you still have breathing
21:43
Speaker 1: your body, you still in the game has helped me
21:46
Speaker 1: chase after that second phase.
21:47
Speaker 4: Of my life.
21:48
Speaker 3: It's interesting because I think a lot of individuals have
21:51
Speaker 3: a hard time getting to where you're at right Like
21:53
Speaker 3: they're in the struggle and they don't know how to
21:57
Speaker 3: seek out that silver lining or maybe in the moment,
22:00
Speaker 3: they're just having a hard time doing so what do
22:03
Speaker 3: you say to those people?
22:05
Speaker 4: You know?
22:06
Speaker 1: What's interesting about that is that when when Lea was
22:10
Speaker 1: going through her battle with cancer, obviously I grew a
22:13
Speaker 1: large platform and a lot of people reach out to
22:17
Speaker 1: me for inspiration and motivation to help them get through
22:20
Speaker 1: the tough times. But a lot of people still struggle
22:23
Speaker 1: because you know that motivation is fickle. It may last
22:26
Speaker 1: a day, it may last a week. It may last
22:29
Speaker 1: a month, but at some point the motivation will die
22:33
Speaker 1: out and you will really have to find your reason why,
22:36
Speaker 1: Like why what is your purpose in life? Like why
22:38
Speaker 1: do you continue to get up no matter how many
22:40
Speaker 1: times life knocks you down? And a lot of people
22:43
Speaker 1: struggle to find that question. So one thing that I
22:46
Speaker 1: decided to do this year, which was a crazy idea
22:50
Speaker 1: but I did it anyway, is I'm going back to
22:53
Speaker 1: school now to get my masters at the University of
22:55
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania and apply positive psychology so that I can really
23:00
Speaker 1: get a theoretical understanding of human flourishing, like how do
23:04
Speaker 1: humans overcome tough times that they are dealing within their life,
23:09
Speaker 1: So that I can take the practical knowledge and the
23:11
Speaker 1: experience that I went through overcoming adversity and combine that
23:15
Speaker 1: with the theoretical research and create a type of framework
23:18
Speaker 1: to really help people flourish in life despite the adversities
23:21
Speaker 1: they face.
23:23
Speaker 2: Wow, first of all, that's dope.
23:25
Speaker 3: Also, I just got excited for you at the idea
23:28
Speaker 3: of like buying school supplies again.
23:31
Speaker 1: I just so, I just did some last minute school
23:34
Speaker 1: supply shopping with Leah yesterday and I'm in there picking
23:38
Speaker 1: up my school supplies too. It was just crazy, like
23:40
Speaker 1: you're eleven going to middle school. I'm thirty two about
23:43
Speaker 1: to go back to school again. It was a crazy experience.
23:47
Speaker 3: I swear every year going back to school, my father
23:49
Speaker 3: and I would reenact that scene and like the Staples
23:51
Speaker 3: commercial where the dad is on the cart and he's
23:53
Speaker 3: just like going through the aisles and yeah, all totally.
23:57
Speaker 2: The best time, the best time.
24:00
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, it's so great to hear that you've
24:02
Speaker 3: been able to turn your struggles into an inspiration for
24:06
Speaker 3: so many. You do a fair amount of motivational speaking.
24:10
Speaker 3: When I ask you if there was a certain perhaps
24:14
Speaker 3: experience or in person moment that you've had over the
24:18
Speaker 3: past handful of years where you were motivational speaking, you
24:21
Speaker 3: were connecting with individuals and someone came up to you.
24:24
Speaker 2: Does anything ring a bell? Does anything come to a
24:26
Speaker 2: highlight for you?
24:28
Speaker 4: Yeah?
24:28
Speaker 1: And this was early on and Leah's diagnosis. This actually
24:33
Speaker 1: happened in Cincinnati. I don't remember the venue was I
24:36
Speaker 1: was at, but I was there speaking and sharing about
24:42
Speaker 1: our journey with cancer, and there was this mom who
24:46
Speaker 1: walked up to me and she gave me the biggest
24:49
Speaker 1: hug that anybody outside of my family has ever gave
24:52
Speaker 1: me before, like the type of hug where they're like
24:55
Speaker 1: squeezing close, and I could hear her crying in my ear.
25:00
Speaker 1: And when she backed up from the hug, she looked
25:03
Speaker 1: at me and she said thank you, And I was like,
25:07
Speaker 1: thank you for what? And she was like, when I
25:11
Speaker 1: heard one of your interviews and I heard you talk
25:14
Speaker 1: about the symptoms that your daughter was experiencing, I realized
25:18
Speaker 1: that my daughter was experiencing those same symptoms. So I
25:22
Speaker 1: ended up taking her to the hospital and she got
25:25
Speaker 1: diagnosed with noora blastoma. But what I'm thinking you for
25:29
Speaker 1: is for opening up and sharing that because if you
25:32
Speaker 1: never did, I would have never understood what my daughter
25:34
Speaker 1: was going through, so I wouldn't have had the chance
25:37
Speaker 1: to put her in treatment to try to save her life.
25:40
Speaker 1: And when she said that to me, it hate home
25:42
Speaker 1: for me that what we were going through wasn't even
25:45
Speaker 1: about us. It was about using our platform to really
25:49
Speaker 1: shed light on something that needs to be talked about,
25:52
Speaker 1: that needs to be spotlighted. More So, when I heard
25:55
Speaker 1: that story from her, I knew that we were on
25:57
Speaker 1: the right path, and I was going to continue to
25:59
Speaker 1: use my platform to shed light on north blastoma and
26:02
Speaker 1: childhood cancer.
26:04
Speaker 2: Just wow wow.
26:05
Speaker 3: I mean today someone goes to your social media page,
26:09
Speaker 3: they see a professional athlete, a motivational speaker, or someone
26:13
Speaker 3: with nearly six hundred thousand followers. When you look in
26:16
Speaker 3: the mirror, what is it that you see looking back
26:19
Speaker 3: at you?
26:20
Speaker 4: A proud dad. That's all I see that.
26:23
Speaker 1: That's what I want to spend my life doing, is
26:25
Speaker 1: just showing people the importance of creating memories and moments
26:29
Speaker 1: with your family members. Like all the other accolades is cool,
26:31
Speaker 1: the professional accolades are cool, but what are we really
26:34
Speaker 1: here for?
26:36
Speaker 4: Right?
26:37
Speaker 1: And I realize that when Lee was battling cancer, when
26:40
Speaker 1: I thought that my time may be cut short with her,
26:42
Speaker 1: that life is not about how long you live with
26:45
Speaker 1: somebody or how long you have somebody in your life,
26:48
Speaker 1: but it's about the amount of memories and moments you create,
26:51
Speaker 1: because that's what life is all about. You don't remember
26:53
Speaker 1: your whole entire life. You remember moments of your life,
26:57
Speaker 1: so you got to try to create as many memorables
27:00
Speaker 1: and positive moments as possible with the ones that you love.
27:03
Speaker 4: And care about.
27:04
Speaker 3: Aside from going back to school, what else excites you
27:07
Speaker 3: right now, right.
27:09
Speaker 1: Now, what decites me the most is this partnership because,
27:12
Speaker 1: like I said, what United Therapeutics and Brave in nord Blastoma.
27:16
Speaker 1: I'm excited to know that there's more resources for families
27:21
Speaker 1: to continue to fight against childhood cancer, to continue to
27:24
Speaker 1: overcome this huge hurdle that they're facing in their life.
27:27
Speaker 1: So being able to use my platform to spot like
27:30
Speaker 1: this and everything that it would do to help out
27:32
Speaker 1: families in the battle with nord blastoma is huge for us.
27:36
Speaker 3: Right now, Devin, you have an opportunity to offer the
27:41
Speaker 3: guy who is that first week in the hospital, getting
27:44
Speaker 3: bad news after bad news after bad news, going through
27:47
Speaker 3: the most unexpected hurdle moment that he could probably ever
27:51
Speaker 3: go through with his daughter.
27:52
Speaker 2: What do you tell him right now.
28:00
Speaker 1: That I understand that every family's experience with nord blastoma
28:06
Speaker 1: or with childhood cancer is different, but I can empathize
28:10
Speaker 1: with what you're going through because a lot of times,
28:14
Speaker 1: as men were taught to be the protector of our
28:17
Speaker 1: family and our children, and when your child is battling
28:21
Speaker 1: something like cancer or nord blastoma, you feel like you
28:25
Speaker 1: failed as a man and as a father because you
28:28
Speaker 1: can't protect them for what they're going through, but I
28:32
Speaker 1: need them to understand that your presence alone will bring
28:36
Speaker 1: healing to your family, for your baby girl, your son.
28:41
Speaker 1: You being there to let them know that they don't
28:43
Speaker 1: have to go through this battle with cancer alone is
28:46
Speaker 1: the best thing that you can do for them. You
28:48
Speaker 1: taking care of yourself mentally and physically, it's the best
28:52
Speaker 1: thing that you can do for them, because you can't
28:54
Speaker 1: show up for somebody if you drained yourself and to
28:57
Speaker 1: be able to use the resources that are available before you.
29:00
Speaker 1: Don't allow your pride to get in your way to
29:03
Speaker 1: receiving help. Because you can't make it through this battle
29:07
Speaker 1: with cancer alone. There's no possible way. So accept the
29:11
Speaker 1: help that people offer you, reach out, ask for resources.
29:15
Speaker 1: Visit Bravennoord blastoma dot com so you can get an
29:18
Speaker 1: understanding of what your family is about to go through
29:21
Speaker 1: so that you can better prepare yourself.
29:23
Speaker 4: For the journey.
29:25
Speaker 3: I love that sentiment not to blame yourself, really really
29:28
Speaker 3: beautiful takeaways today. I'm so grateful for your time, Devin.
29:32
Speaker 3: How do the hurdlers follow along with you? How do
29:34
Speaker 3: they keep up with you? And Leah give us all
29:36
Speaker 3: the details yeah.
29:37
Speaker 1: So the best way to keep up with me and
29:39
Speaker 1: my family is on Instagram. My name on there is
29:42
Speaker 1: still in the game. Or you can visit my website
29:44
Speaker 1: Devinsteel dot.
29:45
Speaker 3: Com beautiful, I'm over at Hurdle Podcast and at Emily
29:49
Speaker 3: Abadi another hurdle conquered.
29:52
Speaker 2: Catch you guys next time.