--- title: Devon Still Gives Daughter Pep Talk Before Cancer Surgery description: Devon Still, defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals, gives daughter Leah a pep talk in the car before surgery canonical: https://time.com/3430583/devon-still-pep-talk-daughter-instagram/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-25T18:13:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:25.876Z og:title: NFL Player Films Inspiring Pep Talk With 4-Year-Old Daughter Before She Has Surgery og:description: She has a form of pediatric cancer og:url: https://time.com/3430583/devon-still-pep-talk-daughter-instagram/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NFL Player Films Inspiring Pep Talk With 4-Year-Old Daughter Before She Has Surgery twitter:description: She has a form of pediatric cancer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # NFL Player's Pep Talk With 4-Year-Old Daughter Before She Has Surgery Goes Viral > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=666ed654-f90c-40d3-b825-44ff8abd8e40&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 25, 2014 6:13 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 25, 2014 6:13 PM UTC Devon Still, defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals, has more important things on his mind than football. He posted a video on his Instagram account Thursday morning of him driving his four-year-old daughter Leah to the hospital to get a tumor removed. “You ready to get this cancer up out you?” Still asks his daughter in the video. She nods. “Let’s do it,” he replies. “Fist bump.” Leah has neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer that has given her a 50-50 chance of survival, [according to ESPN](http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/%5F/id/11585873/devon-gives-pre-surgery-pep-talk-4-year-old-daughter-leah-stricken-pediatric-cancer). Many of Still’s teammates took to Twitter today to show their support: Prayers for Leah Still this morning !!! — Darqueze Dennard (@Queze) [September 25, 2014](https://twitter.com/Queze/status/515138692714086400?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) [#PrayForLeah](https://twitter.com/hashtag/PrayForLeah?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) that the Sugery goes better then any doc think of. [#CANCERFREE](https://twitter.com/hashtag/CANCERFREE?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw). [#woManOfStill](https://twitter.com/hashtag/woManOfStill?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) [#BeatCancer](https://twitter.com/hashtag/BeatCancer?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) [#PrayersUp](https://twitter.com/hashtag/PrayersUp?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) 🙏 [pic.twitter.com/Ay3UbBDICJ](http://t.co/Ay3UbBDICJ) — Carlos Dunlap (@Carlos\_Dunlap) [September 25, 2014](https://twitter.com/Carlos%5FDunlap/status/515138877309607936?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3430583/devon-still-pep-talk-daughter-instagram/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3430583/devon-still-pep-talk-daughter-instagram/"},"headline":"NFL Player's Pep Talk With 4-Year-Old Daughter Before She Has Surgery Goes Viral","datePublished":"2014-09-25T18:13:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:25.876Z","description":"She has a form of pediatric cancer","url":"https://time.com/3430583/devon-still-pep-talk-daughter-instagram/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3430583/devon-still-pep-talk-daughter-instagram/","name":"NFL Player's Pep Talk With 4-Year-Old Daughter Before She Has Surgery Goes Viral"}}]}] ```