Every year, Monica and Brad Culpepper laugh at their son Rex’s Christmas list. Rather than asking for the latest iPhone or laptop, Culpepper asks for new knives for cooking or new grilling tools. Just this past week Monica noticed a charge on Amazon for “the grooviest iron skillet cleaner ever made.”

For Culpepper, cooking has played an integral role in his life. As an outdoorsman who lives along the water in Tampa, Florida, Culpepper enjoys his southern cooking, but growing up the son of a nine-year NFL veteran taught him how proper food preparation is key to a healthy lifestyle.

Several of his Syracuse (8-3, 5-2 Atlantic Coast) teammates described Culpepper as the team chef and nutritionist, claiming that he has helped them to gain or lose weight as well as change their diets for the better. And after Culpepper was diagnosed with testicular cancer last spring, nutrition became his life.

“When I have the right time, I feel like I can blow anyone out of the water (in cooking),” Culpepper said.

Early on in their children’s lives, Monica and Brad instilled a connection with nature and active lifestyles. Some of Culpepper’s earliest memories involve fishing for trout and picking oysters along the seawall beside his home in Tampa. His parents often took their three kids hiking and fishing, and used those trips as bait for gear for future trips, like a new pocket knife.

“(Their friends) knew if they were coming to the Culpepper house it wasn’t going to be a sedate video game-type afternoon,” Brad said.

Brad and Monica then combined that emphasis on exercise with nutritional expertise in the kitchen. Brad, a former All-American defensive tackle and nine-year professional, constantly stressed healthy eating to his children.

“In that type of a profession, you are what you eat,” Monica said. “Rex has been fortunate that he had a father that played nine years in the NFL. Caring for your body is the most important thing. It’s your livelihood… When it pays your bills, it’s number one in your life.”

The Culpeppers aimed to eat dinner as a family at least six nights a week and growing up, Culpepper tried to help prepare meals as much as possible. As an Eagle Scout, Culpepper has had a pocket knife for much of his life, and he often used it to help cut up fruit and vegetables for dinner. Brad was his scoutmaster, and Culpepper worked around an open grill from the time he was about 9 years old and loved to watch the concoctions his father could create.

One of Culpepper’s favorite memories involved digging a pit with his siblings and father in their backyard to roast oysters and grill out of. As they were digging, Culpepper asked what exactly they were doing, to which Brad responded, “We’re cooking dinner.”

“At that point, Rex was like this cooking thing is pretty cool,” Monica said.

The specialty was cowboy steaks, which are marinated and littered with salt and pepper, before being rubbed with mustard and wrapped in tin foil or wet newspaper. Then they’re thrown in the hole, under charcoal, and dug up after a half hour.

But as much as Culpepper loves those steaks, nothing beats going out to fish, he said. At home, he would wake up with Brad and his brother Judge at 5:30 a.m. and take their boat out for the entire day. When they came back with their catch, though, they wouldn’t cook the fish all the same way, Monica said. They had to be prepared different ways. Some would be grilled, while others were fried in multiple different combinations and some were smoked.

Culpepper’s ideal fish is a swordfish, he said. But he very rarely eats it because he didn’t catch it himself.

“My dad told me if you’re a true man of the sea, you don’t eat swordfish from the store,” Culpepper said. “You can only eat swordfish that you’ve caught yourself.”

Culpepper has always lived a healthy life, something which he passed onto several teammates at Syracuse. When he moved in with quarterback Eric Dungey, during his redshirt freshman year, Dungey wanted to gain 15 pounds of muscle, Monica said, which Culpepper helped him do.

He doesn’t allow sugar or processed food in his apartment with Dungey and linebackers Kielan Whitner and Ryan Guthrie. On sugar, they cracked though, and “had to” eat some chocolate.

“Dark chocolate,” Culpepper said. “No milk chocolate.”

Despite his health regimen, Culpepper fell victim to testicular cancer in March, a diagnosis shocking to those who knew him.

Once diagnosed, Culpepper immediately began treatment. But while undergoing chemotherapy, Monica also searched for holistic solutions as well, such as new foods like peppers, kiwis and papayas that helped to restore white blood cells.

“There were some different foods that were introduced in my kitchen that we didn’t always eat before because we found out how valuable they were when you have no white blood cells through 100 hours of chemotherapy and you can’t afford to get the slightest cold because that will get your treatment back,” Monica said.

One of the big changes involved adding exuberant amounts of chlorophyll into Culpepper’s diet. This involved dark green vegetables like kale. All the literature indicated that a diet full of fruits and vegetables could help buffer against cancer, Brad said, and when Culpepper was diagnosed, every turn was looking to see what could cause it, how to beat it and how to prevent it from happening again.

Three months after his diagnosis, Culpepper was declared cancer free. But he planned to maintain the changes in his diet he made during his chemotherapy. Kale remains a staple, along with peppers and tropical fruits.

“Going through cancer you’re forced to learn what is the most healthy lifestyle to live,” Culpepper said.

Now, back to full health, Culpepper has returned to his role as the team nutritionist and chef. He makes trips to Wegmans every Monday to buy food he plans on preparing for the week. One of his most frequent purchases is a rotisserie chicken, which he often buys multiple of at a time and brings to class. One time, Culpepper said, he had a CPR class from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m., so he brought two chickens for the day.

When he has time, Monica said, Culpepper is the type of foodie that will go to the grocery store and talk with every person at the meat or fish counter to ask for recommendations on new combinations and how to prepare the food. He will spend upwards of 90 minutes in the grocery store just buying food to cook for one dinner and enjoy every minute of his trip, Monica said.

“It’s like a playground for (him),” Monica said.

At SU, he talks with the football cooks about what kind of knives they use and different grilling tools that he could possibly add to his collection. During this past summer, he hosted BYOS parties: bring your own steak, where he set up a grill in the back of his pickup truck and grilled steaks for anyone that wished to join, always donning his fishing hat. When the weather turns cold, Culpepper invites everyone inside and bakes steaks in an iron skillet, and occasionally pops open the grill despite the frigid temperatures.

“He loves being the man in charge,” Whitner said. “He lets me get my chance back there. But he’s always a watchful eye.”

Published on November 23, 2018 at 7:28 pm

Contact Matt: mdliberm@syr.edu