Inside the Den 2025 Episode 4: A Crucial Catch

Inside the Den 2025 Episode 4: A Crucial Catch

Before I get started, I have a a couple updates that I want to give you. Josh Pascal and the skin lesions that he had uh removed from the bottom of his right foot. Well, I’m sorry to say that uh those came back as a malignant melanoma. Josh was always the kid that did everything he was supposed to do. He always was really responsible. He used to come home from school and do his homework as soon as he got home. When Josh was a kid, we could never go in the store without him getting some type of ball, a basketball, football. It was something. He was always into sports. That was his thing. He always loved it from a very early age. We shared a room um until I was in middle school. He would sleep with his basketball and in the middle of the night it would always fall out the bed. So everybody knew like when you heard the the bouncing in the middle of the night, it was the basketball problem, not the bed, right? Me and my sister just growing up sharing the same room. We grew up together. We’re only two years apart. Just like any other siblings, like you fight, but you love each other and we really had a great bond growing up. It would be 11:00 at night and so I go downstairs uh in the basement and get on the treadmill. We had this old treadmill I would get on and I get my sister to come down there cuz I was scared of the dark. She would watch TV while I run on the treadmill. and us at 5 years old trying to make weight for little league. That level of discipline in elementary school is insane. Like we’re at McDonald’s and I’m like I want a happy meal and he’s like I want a salad. Because of Josh maturity, he really didn’t waver when it came to leaving home. He always told us when I go away to school, you’re not going to be able to come to drive down the street to come and see me. And so he was ready when it came time for he was ready. Well, I had a relationship with the Pasco family because of Josh’s older brother Trayvon. So Trayvon was a player for us also. And Josh was just a pup. He would come up with his parents for games to watch his brother Trayvon play. I recruited Josh, but I actually his brother was a GA for me and his brother Trayvon said, “Coach, man, you need to recruit my brother.” probably one of the most favorite guys that I recruited. I mean, he became like a son to me. Kentucky was more of a family atmosphere and I really saw how they cared about people outside of ball. Of course, every freshman has growing pains and so it felt good to have like your big brother there with you to help you through those. I mean, at the end of the day, that’s something that you always dreamed of to be able to go from little league to high school and then be able to play in college, especially on SEC level. When he first arrived on campus, we you he was special now. He was different. He was not your usual freshman. We really really had high aspirations and and and Josh didn’t disappoint his freshman year. We were like, “This kid is going to be top 10 pick, top five pick. He was that explosive.” Right. Is blocked. The freshman Josh Pascal gets the block punt. 2017 was Josh’s true freshman year. and I just arrived and I said, “Oh yeah, who’s this number four?” And he was dominating. So I wanted to be an allsec player my next year. That would be my first year starting. So I wanted to earn a starting job. Josh Pascal, he is going to be some player for Kentucky for four right there. He’s going to have to play a bigger role as an every down player. He’s a true freshman that is talented, but everybody in the building respects the kid and uh just his work ethic. We were going into that season pretty dog on excited, understanding we had not only Josh Allen coming back, but having Josh Pasco back on that other side. So many people had expectations for him to have this great uh year coming off of a great freshman year, right? And you know, you have all these plans here that you think that you’re going to do, but then things change, right? During that 2018 summer, I do remember getting my ankles taped and noticing a spot at the bottom of my foot, but it was really my trainers who noticed it. At the end of spring ball, he complained about the bottom’s foot bothering him a little bit. Well, I remember looking at it. It looked like the tip of a magic marker. When Josh came, he thought it was just a blood blister, but it just didn’t look what what a normal blood blister would look like. There was a little bit of asymmetry to it. And so I said, “Josh, we we got to get this thing checked out.” And so they sent me to a podiatrist and the podiatrist started digging into my foot and he said, “Well, this doesn’t look like a planet work.” Because that’s originally what they thought it would be. and they recommended me to go to the dermatologist and then he starts digging through my foot and thinks that it’s appropriate just to take a biopsy to make sure they rule out anything. And so once they took the biopsy, the preliminary results came back and it said abnormal cells. So they just went in and decided to remove it. I was at work and they called and they said um it looked like it’s a possibility of it being melanoma. By that evening, we were on a flight going to Lex. After he had the first surgery, he had he was on the scooter determined to get this boot off of his foot that day so he can start getting ready for the season. I just remember how the shift in the tone once the doctor came in the room and she says, “Unfortunately, the road doesn’t end here.” um that they thought it was stage one or 1B, but she said we were looking at stage two, possibly stage three. And it was like all the air got sucked up through. It ended up being stage 3B and that it had reached twice the depth that it needed to travel to around different parts of my body and it traveled to the lip nodes in my groin of skin cancer. That’s something that I would have never thought I would hear walking into that room. I’ve been me and my wife stand standing there and when they came back and they told us, you know, it was just like, wow. It kind of like numbed me a little bit. It hit me with a ton of bricks. Uh, not knowing what to do next. This child is 19 years old, like in the prime. He looks so healthy. How could this be happening? The word cancer is not a good word to hear and you don’t see it that often in this business. You just don’t. That’s never the news you hear as a young healthy person. You know, Josh had worked really, really hard that off season to train himself. He was in the best shape of his life going into 2018. So, we were all in disbelief. Anytime you hear the word cancer, you know, it sort of stops you in your tracks and you feel helpless. Now it’s not about wins and losses. This is about life and death. It rocked not just me, it rocked everybody. It rocked the community. It shook our whole building. I think our players didn’t understand and I think they just thought when you heard cancer like this it was going to be the worst. It was gut-wrenching and uh broke my heart then and it breaks my heart right now to think about it. We were waiting to hear is it going to be chemo radiation or anything like what’s the treatment plan postoperatively? So we immediately got him to marquee cancer center and the director over there Dr. Mark Evers. I was asked to see Josh after the dermatologist had made the diagnosis of an acral lintigous melanoma in the sole of his foot. There are different types of skin cancers. some such as squamous cell or basil cell they will grow but locally and they hardly ever metastasize as opposed to a melanoma which is a fairly aggressive skin cancer. I feel like the natural response would be why me and that’s something that I feel like I wrestle with at the beginning. You work so hard to get where you want to go and you think that nothing is going to get in the way when it comes to adversity you may face. But I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that I gave my life to Christ and then this happened to me. I met Josh when he was a true freshman here at the university, a young man that desired to do what was right. And so Josh and I began a great relationship and he he started coming through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, our weekly huddle meeting. I’ll never forget one particular Monday night Josh pulled me aside and he said, “Uh, do you have some time to talk?” And we talked about wanting to grow in his faith. And then right after that, he he made a decision to get baptized here at his local church. Before that, my life was football all around. Like since the moment I was a child until that time, my identity honestly was in football before I gave my life to Christ. And so I feel like once that was taken away from me, it was more of leaning on my faith and knowing that um through my faith, I was going to be healed. And if I wasn’t, then I would be healed on the other side. Josh always told me that he had a piece. And I think what makes Josh’s diagnosis with cancer unique is that he came to know the Lord before his diagnosis. So then when he gets diagnosed, he just felt like God had a plan and he was okay with his future no matter what that held. During that time, Jesus was everything. Now he is then. And honestly, throughout that time, I couldn’t have gotten through it without him. I’ll never forget we had went to church as a team. Josh kept complaining and he tapped me and he said, “Coach,” he said, “my is in pain.” And I remember I said, “All right, we gonna just walk out because it was a big service. Walk out and Josh Allen came with us and drive him back to the facility. The team ain’t back yet.” And I remember Josh Allen, he says to me, “Coach, man, why why this happened to him?” And I never get what Josh said. He said, “A lot of people couldn’t handle this.” He said, “I really believe God put me in a position to handle this.” It was days that I had that were down and it was days that I rejoiced being young and also being black. This was something that I didn’t know could impact me the way that it was going to. Melanoma is less common in African-Americans and particularly at that young age. So often times we will uh advise for something called a sentininal node bopsy. And if the melanoma has spread to the lymph nodes, then you would advise a therapy that we call imunotherapy. So what imunotherapy does is essentially having your own immune cells attack your own cancer has really revolutionized how we treat melanoma. Josh would not be around I I don’t think without the benefits of imunotherapy. Everything just started. It just happened so quickly and I think 2 days later he was in for the first surgery. The next surgery was going to be obviously a little bit more extensive where they were going to have to take out a pretty good chunk of his low the bottom of his foot and then do a skin graft off of off of the lower leg. The melanoma was probably on about the worst spot for an athlete that one could have which required a big surgery to remove the tumor and then to have reconstructive surgery. So a flap had to be moved to take the place of that tissue. So he basically had to learn how to how to walk and maneuver all over again. Seeing him go through treatment, you can see the changes in him. As a mother, as a as a as a dad, and as a sister, brother, you know, it it hurt to see your child go through. I’m thankful for the team that he had around him. He couldn’t have had better treatment anywhere else. You know, God sent him there for that time and that season. Josh always approached it with dignity every treatment. He never went in feeling sorry for himself. He never went in having a bad day. He always went in with a positive attitude. Josh had imunotherapy for one year and it can really knock you for a loop in terms of being tired. For me personally, I had a choice to either give in to what I was thinking is football over. Felt like I made the choice every day to wake up and attack each and every day. I was fighting for my life and I was also fighting to be able to play football again. There was times when he goes to cancer treatment, then he shows up in the afternoon for rehab and you can tell he’s wiped out, but physically he just keeps pushing through. Josh talks about one thing and that’s return to play. He never once acknowledged the negative sides of the word cancer. It was very hard and uh I’m sure it was shocking to him and his family and everybody. But once he got his grip on it and got his arms around it, he was just very matter of fact of I’m going to handle this. I’m going to do the treatment and I’m going to be fine. In dealing with Josh, you have to protect Josh from himself because regardless if he has feeling or not, he’s not going to stop. His attitude was fantastic. It was totally focused on I’m going to get better. Let’s move forward. My health is first and then football next. To set a goal for myself to be able to play again that season was very good for me personally, just to get back on the field with my brothers that year. you’d gain strength and inspiration from him and I think it made the guys work harder and every time we broke down, you know, we we would break down on JP on me JP3. Something beautiful about that whole time was just my teammates reactions to everything. Um to see them support me through the whole thing. Hey bro, we need to work for you, bro. Hey, this season for you, bro. So much as was the influence of Josh and his spirit and his energy and his persistence and toughness and grit that just sort of personified what that team was. He would hit every obstacle head on and then continue to just push forward. He would go through his treatment and he want to go to he wants to go to the facility after treatment. I’m like, Josh, just go home. Let’s just get some rest. And um he was like, I want to be with my brothers. I want to be with the team. He saw so much strength in that UK organization. Everybody was touched by watching his perseverance. You never felt like Josh was really worried about his future. He was going to be worried about getting healthy in the moment and then continuing to take the next step in his journey. We knew emotionally he was going to be demanding because he’d worked so hard in the off season. Now he’s got to rehab from a couple of different surgeries to remove the cancer and he can’t be out there playing football doing his passion with his teammates. And Josh was a remarkable human being who always stayed positive, always had a good outlook. First main thing was we got to get him back on his feet. And so it would be get off the scooter, do weightbearing, do impact weight bearing, meaning more where the foot leaves the ground and you land on it. Put them in a water a lot once the wound was clear to go in water. Then you get them feet on the ground weightlifting. I honestly do not remember a day when he was down and distraught. You want to keep his mind as much as you can on what’s ahead in front of him. You’re just worried about coming in that weight room just attacking that day. And once you attack that day, you just continue after that stack days. Lord bless you. You see another day, attack that day. The Kentucky staff did a great job of rehabing me back. And so I had to learn how to use the inside of my foot again. I had to learn how to explode off of it. I knew what it was going to take to get there. But at the end of the day, the only thing I had was the next day. On surface, he was saying, “I’m going to get back and play football.” But I think in his spirit when he got by himself, he had some moments. I would go to a park about 15 minutes from campus and it was right on the lake, I would go just to clear my head to hear nature and spend some time with the Lord. But the reason I like fell in love with all of this was because of the simplicity aspect of everything. And like back home like it just so everything’s so fast and moves so fast. And then like I would come I I came to Kentucky and then I would come here and everything just so slow. Like I would come here and I would think about like how could I get better? Um like what do I have to do to get better? I would pray and it was just more of a opportunity to like self-reflect and really like build goals for myself. Yeah. It just really became like a a peaceful spot for me. And I feel like this is where I found solitude. He just likes the the peace, the tranquility, you know, just the simple life. I would just drive a lot in Kentucky. Like drive on the back roads and you literally just can’t forget about anything. Like I just go on these roads and I feel like it reenters me. And these roads get windy. I kind of had to accept was the fact that my identity wasn’t football and it wasn’t like how hard I worked and how much I gave to like the game. And when that all got stripped away from me, that was like my first time where I couldn’t cure cancer. Like I wasn’t going to do that and I couldn’t like work this off. It was more like of the fact that I had to truly like surrender. But this is like the first time where I had to figure out like who I was outside of that. And if football was taken away from me or if the cancer was to like somehow get worse, like where would I go if I died? Sometimes like when I was struggling and this would kind of like build me back up like my time here and stuff. So, this is probably more of a safe space for me. I wouldn’t say like I really came here and uh and it went bad or anything. I definitely had hard conversations with myself though cuz football seemed like such a far stretch like after all that and like the hardest time of everything really came when I started to practice again. I knew the progress that I had made going into my second year. And the practice again, it felt like everything went back to ground zero. And it was different. Like I couldn’t feel half my foot. So my body didn’t move the way that I wanted it to. And it kind of felt like it became real in that moment of I don’t know how this is going to affect my future with football. It was Halloween weekend and I’m like driving like what is happening? So, I pull over and I’m like consoling him and he’s like, “I just want to play football.” And he breaks down in tears. As soon as she picked me, I just started balling my eyes out. Um, just because it was just hard for me to have that same strength that I did as far as pushing off of my foot cuz my original goal was to be back for the Georgia game that year because that was one of the biggest games of the year for us. He will not be able to participate this week. We were we were trying. We were hopeful. Um he had been working towards getting some practice time, but he’s not ready. You hold the space when you’re watching somebody go through something like that. A pivotal like lifechanging experience where they’re literally fighting for their life. And his breakdown was was about football. That was my first time really getting that emotional over everything that happened. Um because I felt like I had like so much potential going into that season and I wanted to help the team out and I felt like all of my training had just went away um because of that 3 months of having to get everything fixed. Everybody wanted to get him in the game. Everybody wanted to see him sort of be back to Josh. But there was more than just the beating of the cancer than it’s getting back into football shape. You could tell how bad he wanted to get back in. So, he was going to tell you anything you wanted to hear. We had to make sure that he’s physically ready to be able to plant, drive, protect himself. You didn’t want to do anything that would uh jeopardize or injure him, you know, going forward. Cuz if you know Josh, you know he’s going to get back on the field some shape, some form, somehow. Even if he was holding for the kicker, it doesn’t matter what it was, he was gonna find a way to get back on the field. I wanted to be able to make plays, but at the same token, I wanted to be able to move well. I didn’t want to go out there and hurt my teammates. To me, it was just more about could he withstand tight ends and tackles. That’s 330 lbs coming at him play after play. How was his respon like I remember the first practice he had, I’m looking at him like I’m not even looking at my position. cuz I’m more just looking at him. And you know what? It didn’t take long. Even though I wasn’t able to play against Georgia, I was able to play that following week against Middle Tennessee. We could have lost that game and I wouldn’t have cared. Just seeing him in the warm-ups and I was like, hell, next kids, that’s probably the best thing I seen. I’ll never forget standing in the tunnel uh watching Josh as he ran out onto the field for the first time to understand that you know football and sport you you you know can be taken away from you in a in a in a moment but the gratitude that Josh felt to be able to get back out onto the field. Yeah. I’ll never forget that. This is his first action of the year and he is finally back. You’re trying not you got to play a game and you’re trying not to you you’re fighting back tears and it was awesome to see him out there. Tackle is made by Kucky’s Josh Pascal. I’m just thinking about how far the Lord has taken me from 3 months before that until then and thinking that I had the whole world in my hands before the diagnosis and wanted to be able to be that guy on the team and just how like our plans don’t always line up with the Lord’s plans for us, but um I know that it was working for his greater good. I felt like all those emotions just flew through my head when I made that play and the crowd went crazy and my teammates went crazy and everybody realized it was him. Then, you know, they kind of like gave him standing ovation. Hey, there’s a play made by Josh Pascal to see him back on the field. Still undergoing treatment. He had three surgeries. He’s being treated monthly for imunotherapy treatments. And this young man has been an amazing example of perseverance for Kentucky. It was quite the feat for him to go through all of those treatments, go through the rehab process, learning how to walk again, learning how to run again, and to see him on the field. We were just so proud. The fact that Josh was able to be so physical despite being on imunotherapy was quite phenomenal. The battle isn’t over and we know that. I spent this afternoon with Josh as he received another treatment and it’s hard to see him going through that at the hospital. But Josh, you amaze us and we are so proud of you. It’s definitely still things that you have to do after you go into remission. Early on, he had to get scans twice a week and had to get some ultrasounds to make sure that there was no other melanoma anywhere in his body. He just wanted to play football. If you can give him anything, just give him back football. I guess our family bonded together around that. The way he started as a true freshman and then to get the diagnosis and it’s like, man, will he ever play football again? And then he’s got to go through the rehab process and you’re watching him cut and you’re like, is he ever going to get back to what he was? And then he was the best player in the SEC his senior year. Tackled at the 31 yd line. Josh Pasco, he is having himself quite a game. I’ll never forget I was on my back porch with my kids and watching the TV when it got announced. I mean, it was chaos. The Detroit Lions select Josh Pascal, defensive end, University of Kentucky. You would have thought I got drafted that day. I was so happy for him, his family. It was a a surreal moment because immediately my mind went back to that day, me, him, and Josh leaving the church and I’m taking him out because he was in pain. And I was like, man, God is so good. And I remember that Dallas game. I was like, look at this dude. I remember even coming in here hurt and having to get uh surgery before I stepped on the field and then starting against the Cowboys at the Cowboys and it was just so many emotions of something that you worked for since you were a kid. Um something that you thought was going to be taken away from you in college and to be able to play football in the NFL and it was beautiful and I was super grateful and thankful. looking. Looking going to get hit. Going to go down. Josh Pascal got it. Football has been hard post cancer even. No matter the injuries, no matter the surgeries, no matter the setbacks, I feel like the perseverance aspect is everything to be able to keep going. But I also am exactly where I wanted to be when I was a child. getting ready to understand that just because you win this one battle, you have to win these battles throughout the rest of your life. We talk about survivors and there’s always vigilance that still needs to happen. So, I have to do annual skin checks and PET scans just to make sure that there’s no new spots that showed up and if they are, then get those biopsy or get them removed. Last season they just found a mass in my shoulder and we had about three or four ultrasound guided biopsies to try and figure out what it was. Again, you get you hear something that you don’t want to hear. We were so thankful when we did get the results back that everything was benign and it was all clear. It was more of a piece knowing that I’ve been through it before. Um knowing that the Lord had me through it. Good morning guys. Today we are going to ask you all to vote on the Edlock Courage Award winner. The goal here is to kind of exemplify people that that have commitment, courage, compassion, inspiration, and you know, often times the attributes that I just described are seen in in tough times, right? The person you chose um I have a great deal of admiration and respect for because he showed great character during a very challenging time in his life. Um, I feel that in the midst of adversity, uh, he made the choice to come in here every day and be here for other people. Please join me in congratulating Josh Pascal to being your future. What it means to fight is to give everything that you have. Some days the bucket may be more full than others, but no matter what you have that day to give it your all. But I tried to push myself to constantly stay joyful throughout the whole time because I wasn’t going to let cancer win at the end of the day. Josh inspired an entire community through what’s it look like to persevere through really really tough adversity. I feel like I was blessed with the people around me to put a perfect plan together. UK was special because of the people. My life was saved by the trainers and to be able to catch that early. Those were the guys who were the real heroes because it would be a natural inclination to assume that it was nothing more than a blister to be astute and say, “We need to check this out.” That was a life-saving move. I believe that a cancer diagnosis taped me. It taught me how to fight through adversity. It taught me how to attack a goal. And it taught me most importantly how to lean on my faith and to fully trust in Jesus. And it’s something where I know it happened to me to be able to help impact other people. And so to be able to go through it and to have the platform that I have to be able to spread awareness about it, even if it just touches one person and they notice something in their body and they get it checked out, that’s saving a life. The key message here is you always need to be hypervigilant and any abnormality, lump bump that you see, it needs to be checked out. Regardless of if you’re young, young people can still get cancer. When I hear the word cancer, I think of triumph. I think of loss. I think of grief. And I also think of victory. going through that treatment, he saw some of the other people in the cancer center and he knew that, hey, this could be a lot worse. A couple weeks before I got diagnosed, I went to go see a kid. His name was Austin Dunn and he had brain cancer. He was a cool dude. He was my age. He was from Kentucky. And then I saw him. He came to one of my games and he had his hair fully grown back. Uh it was in remission and all of that. And so it was good to see him. And then I had came back and his mom was trying to get in touch with me and she was like, “Hey, look, um, his cancer came back and basically that he was on his deathbed.” And she wanted me to like come see him. And so I went to the hospital and went to go see him, bro. And it was the complete like opposite of what I saw him at. He ended up passing away. And it was just like crazy to see like the parallels and like how things could have turned out once he got to the point where he had his last treatment and you know they had a traditional ringing the bell. He wouldn’t ring it cuz he said there somebody in here that can’t ring it. I knew that there were people in there going through things significantly worse than I what I was. And realistically there were people in there who probably aren’t here today. Um, I just wanted to be thankful and grateful for the people who helped me through it. Josh Pascal is one of the most humble, um, high character, amazing young men that I’ve ever met. He’s a fierce, tough player on the field, but in his heart, he is this compassionate, tenderhearted young man. I believe that he’s endured this to help someone else. If it’s just to bring awareness to uh cancer and melanoma, to bring the good news of the Lord Jesus in the football room, football gives him a great platform to help other people. And I believe that his story will help other people. Every testimony there has to be a story. This is just a part of his story. And it’s a victorious story and we’re thankful for that. Proud of you. proud of you, sir. People going through it need to see you and they need to touch you. And I know that I went through the things that I did in college and the cancer diagnosis to be able to do so. Feel like I’ve been blessed with the platform to be able to help others and inspire others going through the same thing.

In conjunction with the NFL’s Crucial Catch initiative, EDGE Josh Paschal shares how his battle with Melanoma has shaped his life and his journey to the NFL.

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