ARLINGTON, Texas — Several months ago, Dak Prescott decided on his theme for the NFL's My Cause My Cleats initiative this year. He chose "Early Detection" with a sub-message of "see the unseen."
Those messages were an ode to his late mother, Peggy Prescott, who lost her life to colon cancer in 2013.
Peggye didn't know she had cancer until it had reached Stage 4. Otherwise put: It was too late.
In the 11 years since her passing, Dak has made a big part of his foundation's mission, helping others detect cancer before it's too late. As a part of that initiative, Prescott's foundation provided the funds to get the Cowboys coaching staff tested while at training camp in Oxnard, California, this past summer. Through the use of Galleri, a new test that can find signals for up to 50 different types of cancers, the coaching staff and select others were screened.
By chance, Tad Carper, Senior Vice President of Communications for the Cowboys was also tested.
"I was just fortunate Dak reached out and said, 'Why don't you take it too?'" Carper recalled.
A couple weeks later, Carper got a call he never saw coming. The doctors detected signals in Carper's bloodwork that suggested cancer of the head or neck area.
"Well, I got some bad news -- because we've uncovered a suspicious mass on your tonsil," the doctor told Carper.
He would later find out it was Stage 2.
In the moments immediately after the call, Carper remembers feeling "just thankful, feeling blessed immediately," but admits "the rest of the afternoon was kind of a blur."
"You go through a period of dangerous introspection," he said.
Having gotten the call at work, Carper had to continue about his daily responsibilities. After finishing up a production call with network talent that he happened to be on with Dak, the two were set to leave the room when Carper stopped the quarterback.
"Hold on," he said. "I got one more thing… and it's a big thing".
Prescott was the first person Carper told of his diagnosis.
"Dude," Carper remembers saying, "you probably -- literally -- saved my life."
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Since that day, Carper has gone about sharing his story, one of early detection, with the sole purpose of encouraging others to do the same.
"I've spent my decades-long career on the other side of the camera… encouraging other people to share their story," he said. "It would've been very hypocritical of me for me to not do that now."
He continued: "I just want to pay it forward, and to encourage others to be willing to go out and get tested even when you're feeling fine. That's the best time -- the best time -- to do something like this."
Carper's battle
Carper is set to begin radiation in the coming weeks. As he's started to fight the first stanzas in his battle with cancer, he's reflected closely on these last three months since taking that initial test on August 18.
"If I had waited another two to three months, when my throat started to hurt... the doctors have told me we'd be having a much different conversation than the one we're having now," he said.
Carper only joined the Cowboys in 2022. The move came after he decided to retire from a lengthy career with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Before taking the job in Dallas, he and his wife Ann contemplated if taking a job with the Cowboys was the right move.
Three years and one test later: "Well, now we know why," he said. "Now we know."
His wife has been his rock during this time of difficulty. Carper has attributed his ability to find the good in his journey to his wife's faith -- something he has drawn on it himself over the last several months.
Dak's cause
A test that could've potentially saved Prescott's mother's life could be the reason Carper's gets saved.
When Prescott initially decided on his cause for this year's My Cause My Cleats game, nobody had any idea that Carper had cancer.
As fate would have it, Prescott's cause had a way of seeing what the Cowboys couldn't.
And, in the process, the team might have just saved a life of one of their own.
"This has been the best thing that ever happened to me," Carper said.