For Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton, playing last Thursday night against the Las Vegas Raiders was the easy part.
Three days after hearing the words “testicular cancer,” and one night before undergoing what would prove to be successful surgery, Singleton played one of his better games of the season at the core of Denver’s defense as his side of the football dragged a bedraggled offense over the finish line for a 10-7 win, the Broncos’ seventh in succession.
For the second-straight game, Singleton didn’t miss a tackle, and with the aid of some creative looks from defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, Singleton and the Broncos corralled All-Pro tight end Brock Bowers. He nailed the assignment.
Focusing on that task allowed him to keep his mind off the searing, life-changing news he received on the Broncos’ off-day three days earlier: a diagnosis of testicular cancer that followed an elevated hormone revealed in an NFL-administered drug test.
“Football has always been an outlet for me and always will be,” Singleton said. “So to be able to play Thursday and the short week honestly made it better.
“Tuesday, Wednesday, I got to fully immerse myself in football and really get this off my mind as much as I could, because we weren’t going to know anything until after the surgery anyways and still you don’t 100 percent know everything. And so the biggest thing for me was how to get my mind off of it.”
WHAT CAME AFTER THE GAME FOR SINGLETON
Friday brought the procedure, a weekend of recovery — and perhaps most importantly, not doing any Google searches into his condition.
“The doctor all week was like, ‘Please stop Googling things.’ So I haven’t Googled much,” he said. “I’ve tried not to, because obviously you start Googling any kind of cancer, you can take yourself down a dark rabbit hole pretty quickly.”
Instead, he focused on his family — and watching football.
“It’s been a lot of just sitting on the couch, obviously a lot of time with my wife and daughter which has been nice just to kind of slow down, not be able to move,” Singleton said.
“Until [Monday], it’s really been just us who knew about this, so it’s just been us kind of together going through the emotions of the whole thing and just enjoying each other’s company through this. That’s really what it was this weekend — and obviously I watched a lot of football.
“I don’t know how you guys do that every weekend because my Saturday and Sunday felt really long sitting on the couch watching that much football,” Singleton said, laughing.
Through it all, he hadn’t lost his smile or his sense of humor. Everything about him is undeterred — from the field to the fact that he was willing to answer media questions not long after sharing his diagnosis with the team.
Singleton didn’t have to do that; frankly, it would have been understandable if fielding queries was the last thing on his mind.
But it mattered to him to “get the word out to get everybody screened and checked,” as he noted.
“Obviously this journey, I’m going to continue talking about it and sharing it with you guys and everybody else, just knowing that there shouldn’t be a big stigma behind it, that there’s nothing wrong with it,” he said.
That mattered to Singleton, just like it mattered that he would play last Thursday night, giving no indication that anything was amiss.
“It doesn’t surprise me with Alex,” fellow linebacker Justin Strnad said. “He’s shown to be the ultimate competitor and ultimate team player. He had the knee [injury] last year.
“He’s been through a lot in this league, and this is obviously a big obstacle but he’s going to overcome it. We’re all going to be here to help him through it.”
MOVING FORWARD FOR THE BRONCOS WHILE SINGLETON RECOVERS
He’ll miss at least Sunday’s game against Kansas City; what happens beyond that depends on the pathology that followed Friday’s surgery and any subsequent treatment that may be required.
“I’m not giving an exact timetable yet, but I should recover pretty quickly from the surgery and then get up and running here pretty soon,” Singleton said. “But I for sure will be missing this weekend.”
Thus, someone else will need to relay the defensive play calls and wear the “green dot” helmet to hear coordinator Vance Joseph’s instructions from the sideline; that will almost certainly be either Strnad or Dre Greenlaw.
But the Broncos’ contingency plan potentially becomes more complex due to the hamstring injury suffered by rookie Karene Reid last Thursday. Veterans Drew Sanders and Garret Wallow also remain on injured reserve with foot and hamstring injuries, respectively, leaving Jordan Turner and Levelle Bailey as practice-squad options.
“It’s 11 guys on the field, and we’ll get it all figured out and put our best foot forward this week,” Strnad said.
And they’ll do so with No. 49 foremost on their minds.
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