{"id":903966,"date":"2026-05-29T00:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/903966\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T00:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:57:18","slug":"inside-broncos-ilb-alex-singletons-advocacy-for-testicular-cancer-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/903966\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Broncos ILB Alex Singleton’s advocacy for testicular cancer awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time, Alex Singleton has realized, is worth paying for. In years past, when wheeling onto I-70 on trips to downtown Denver, he and his wife, Sam, would always avoid taking a toll road. It usually cost around $4. It was never worth it.<\/p>\n

Last November, the Broncos\u2019 captain was diagnosed with testicular cancer after an NFL drug screening flagged an elevated hormone in his blood<\/a>. A relatively carefree man\u2019s life flipped. In the months after emergency surgery, from conversations with testicular-cancer advocates, Singleton understands that random screening may have saved his life. He was given heaps of time, really, that he didn\u2019t know he was in danger of losing.<\/p>\n

These days, he and Sam pay for the express lane.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything like that,\u201d Singleton told The Post on Wednesday, \u201cI\u2019m taking the toll road from now on. Whatever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pendulum has swung so many times, through Singleton\u2019s life, that he has stopped straining to push it in any particular direction. He endured more than a dozen failed tryouts as an undrafted linebacker and a stint in the CFL before establishing himself in the NFL.<\/a> Finally minted as a long-term starter in Denver, he tore his ACL in 2024. Then he got cancer.\u00a0Months later, after surgery to remove a tumor,\u00a0he earned a new two-year contract,<\/a> and he and his wife are set to welcome a second child<\/a>.\u00a0There is no predicting life; there is only being \u201coptimistic about what\u2019s going to come next,\u201d as Singleton mused, and preserving the time to do so.<\/p>\n

He has now dedicated himself to helping others preserve that time, too.<\/p>\n

In November, Kim Jones, founder of the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation, cold-emailed Singleton shortly after hearing of his diagnosis. The next day, Singleton hopped on a call with her for an hour and a half. He told her about symptoms he\u2019d been feeling and shrugged off for a couple months. And Jones \u2014 respectfully \u2014 chastised him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018You are the typical male that lets things go,’\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd it could have spread a lot faster than what it did for him. So thank God he had that random drug screening.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October 2007, Jones\u2019 son Jordan was diagnosed with late-stage testicular cancer two weeks before his 14th birthday. He fought, made a full recovery, relapsed close to a decade later, and died in 2016. Jones founded TCAF in 2009 in Jordan\u2019s honor<\/a>, an organization that has since established programs providing financial and educational assistance to testicular cancer patients and hosted conferences at cancer centers across the country. Singleton came away from that first call wanting to help<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just kinda gonna do whatever I could do,\u201d Singleton said, \u201cto be involved in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BroncosBroncos linebacker and captain Alex Singleton marches at an inaugural “Ball March” hosted by Nads underwear in Austin, Texas on April 12. (Photo courtesy of Lauren Grover\/Dumpster Dive Photography)<\/p>\n

In April, Singleton walked through Austin, Texas, with 50 other semi-naked men in underwear company Nads\u2019 first-ever \u201cBall March,\u201d<\/a> hosted in partnership with TCAF. In May, he flew to Indianapolis on two separate weekends to support the foundation\u2019s outreach efforts at the Indy 500, telling his story to medical professionals and racing fans alike as part of TCAF\u2019s \u201cIndy\u2019s Nuts\u201d campaign<\/a>. His Instagram has become a living ambassadorship<\/a>, with such photos of Singleton holding up a \u201cCheck Your Nads\u201d sign at that April march.<\/p>\n

The primary goal around testicular-cancer awareness, Jones said, is to break down any existing taboo around discussing one\u2019s testicles so men learn to check themselves on a regular basis. Enter Singleton, a 32-year-old linebacker mature enough to captain a Super Bowl contender and disarming enough to, well, crack jokes about his nads.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am profoundly grateful to Alex \u2013 for Alex \u2013 for him using his platform to help support the fight,\u201d Jones told The Post. \u201cBecause his voice will help prevent late-stage diagnosis. It will help save lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, if we had this before Jordan\u2019s diagnosis and Jordan was diagnosed early, he would still be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is an innate and complicated balance, Singleton is aware, to being an ambassador for a potentially fatal disease that becomes radically less harmful if discovered early. Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer between men ages 20 to 40, but is approximately 99% curable when discovered at Stage 1, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins Medicine<\/a>. The greatest defense, as Jones says, is education.<\/p>\n

Another ultimately related defense, too, is humor. Nut-related slogans stick, Jones has found. And Singleton\u2019s attitude toward such discussion was shaped by his doctor, who introduced himself to Singleton in a way the linebacker has not forgotten.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Allen (17) of the Buffalo Bills scrambles as Alex Singleton (49) of the Denver Broncos chases during the second quarter at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe calls himself a plumber,\u201d Singleton said. \u201cWhich was funny. He was like, \u2018Yeah, I work on nuts, d\u2014 and ass.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Indy 500, Singleton became fast friends with Jack Harvey, a Dreyer Reinbold driver whose No. 24 Chevrolet partnered with TCAF and Fennec Pharmaceuticals for the \u201cIndy\u2019s Nuts\u201d campaign. The first time they met was on a shoot for a \u201cvideo about balls,\u201d as Harvey put it. And Singleton fired off a joke, from his own lived experience through surgery, that Harvey would\u2019ve never dreamed of making.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t exactly remember what it was,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cBut it revolved around \u2014 a singular nut. And I was like, \u2018OK, I guess we\u2019re just diving straight in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Singleton, by nature, is a man who does not take himself especially seriously. In an early-November game against the Raiders \u2014 while set for cancer surgery the very next day \u2014 he celebrated a tackle by cupping his hands under his privates in a \u201cbig-nuts\u201d celebration<\/a>. And the combination of both serious lived experience and unserious demeanor made Singleton the \u201cperfect spokesperson\u201d for the Austin march, as Nads co-founder Dan Baird said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all it is,\u201d Singleton said. \u201cIt\u2019s getting comfortable with talking about \u2018em, and then being able to discuss stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause, I think it\u2019s the same thing with breast cancer,\u201d he continued. \u201cI mean, when I was 10 years old, before the whole pink movement in the NFL \u2014 if you would\u2019ve said, \u2018breast,\u2019 I would\u2019ve thought it was funny at first. Or \u2018boob.\u2019 But I think we have normalized breast cancer in our culture. And I think that makes it good. It makes women be able to talk about it. It\u2019s comfortable if you have breast cancer to say, \u2018I have breast cancer.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"BroncosBroncos linebacker Alex Singleton (left), Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation founder Kim Jones (center) and Broncos cornerback Jahdae Barron at April 12’s “Ball March” hosted by underwear company Nads. (Photo courtesy of Lauren Grover\/Dumpster Dive Photography)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think a lot of men are kinda afraid to go to a doctor to have something wrong with them, because it\u2019s not \u2018manly.\u2019 But if we can normalize words like \u2018Balls\u2019 and \u2018nads\u2019 and \u2018nuts\u2019 \u2014 when there\u2019s something wrong, you\u2019ll say something.\u201d<\/p>\n

A living, breathing example of such a phenomenon: Singleton\u2019s Broncos teammate Jahdae Barron, an Austin native who just so happened to be back in his hometown the day of the Nads march. While Singleton was walking back with the group in April, Barron came up \u2014 with no prior warning \u2014 and tapped him on the shoulder. His mother, Barron explained, had seen Singleton promoting the march on social media and asked him why he wasn\u2019t going. So Barron hopped in an Uber downtown, fell in with Singleton and the group, and started chanting \u201cCheck your nads!\u201d at random passersby.<\/p>\n

Every day since, through the Broncos\u2019 offseason programming, Barron has randomly yelled \u201cCheck your nads!\u201d at teammates in the building, Singleton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d Singleton said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also like, man, if it just takes one guy one time in their career to feel a bump on their nuts and \u2014 they don\u2019t have to tell Jahdae, they don\u2019t have to tell me \u2014 but if they tell one of our trainers like, \u2018Hey, I got this funny bump,\u2019 just because he\u2019s been yelling it every day, that\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singleton intends to continue doing several events a year to support TCAF, and Jones has offered him a spot on the foundation\u2019s board of directors. Beyond TCAF, too, he wants to spread the message to give one\u2019s self to something, as he told The Post. Not just money.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive your time,\u201d Singleton said.<\/p>\n

He has learned its value in all aspects, after all, heading into a season where these Broncos have only a few months to capitalize on lofty expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing the team we have, and knowing how we\u2019re evolving and how I want us to evolve, and using my messaging or my platform with the guys to do that \u2013 to just not let mundane days not make us better,\u201d Singleton said. \u201cHaving that fear of losing it all just six months ago \u2014 now, I have two more years. So it\u2019s like, take advantage of those and make them as great as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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