Striving for toughness, Judge Culpepper looks to his family for examples

Penn State defensive tackle Judge Culpepper always admired the sacrifices his mom made for him and his two siblings. Monica Culpepper kept the family running by shuttling her kids to various sports, encouraging them to maintain straight As and supporting Judge and his brother Rex as they became Eagle Scouts just like their dad

Penn State defensive tackle Judge Culpepper always admired the sacrifices his mom made for him and his two siblings.

Monica Culpepper kept the family running by shuttling her kids to various sports, encouraging them to maintain straight A’s and supporting Judge and his brother Rex as they became Eagle Scouts — just like their dad and grandfather. She put a lot on hold for her family, especially as her husband, Brad Culpepper, a former All-America lineman at Florida and nine-year NFL defensive tackle, retired from football and started a law practice.

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So imagine the kids’ surprise in 2011 when Monica told them their dad was in charge for 50 days because she was selected to go to an undisclosed remote island to participate on the game show “Survivor.” The idea still sounds crazy to Monica, just like it did when casting called Brad — an avid outdoorsman who grew up in Dog Island, Fla., in a house on stilts, where the only way to get there was via a boat and catching your own food was the norm — to say they wanted his wife for the TV show instead of him.

“’What do you mean? She’s never even camped,’” Monica recalled of Brad’s initial reaction. “They said, ‘Well, that’s OK. We still need to take her. And by the way, she’s got to be ready in two weeks.’ … He presented this to me and I said, ‘Are you out of your mind? I’m not playing “Survivor.” I can’t leave the kids. I have no interest in doing this.’”

Here’s the thing about the Culpepper family: They’re always up for adventure and always find ways to support one another. Family vacations usually meant trekking through a national park or snowboarding out west. Brad told Monica he didn’t care if she got voted off first. It would be an experience in a beautiful location, and at the very least a break from the routine and the kids: Rex, then a sixth-grader; Judge, then a fourth-grader; and Honor, then a second-grader. Monica needed to do something for herself after putting everyone first for years, he said.

Brad even helped her prepare by packing up the family and taking them camping at Egmont Key, a secluded island at the mouth of Tampa Bay that can only be reached by boat. They spent three nights in the dirt with mosquitos biting them. He taught her how to gig for fish and clean them, make a fire and cook them.

“The kids just thought it was a riot,” Monica said. “He kind of put me through this survivor school, and the next thing you know, literally two weeks later, I fly to Samoa and play ‘Survivor.’”

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She made her reality TV debut, still wondering what in the world she’d gotten herself into.

“I remember (the show’s host) Jeff Probst, before he threw us out there on the island, he said, ‘I just want to tell everybody we’re going up against “American Idol,” so everybody better bring it this whole season,’” she said. “I’m thinking, ‘My family doesn’t even know where I am. I am so out of my element. You know, I’m just a really good mom and wife and, oh my God, what am I doing?’”

Brad handled back-to-school with the three kids — and later frantically drove through the neighborhood when their youngest, daughter Honor, got off at the wrong bus stop on her first day of school. Monica had no way of knowing about this until she returned from Samoa after her torch was snuffed.

Monica was the fourth person eliminated and fifth removed from the show of 18 players that season. She made it 14 days, then went on the show again in 2013, that time leaving Judge thoroughly impressed when he watched on national television as a glass of 40 squiggling mealworms was placed on a platter in front of his mom. She downed them and advanced to throw back three ounces of pig intestines, while Probst shouted at the contestants about the shot at winning $1 million.

“This one is for the kids,” Monica said as she held up the last bit of intestine, closed her eyes and finished. She scarfed down two grubs to earn immunity and join the esteemed ranks of Survivor food challenge winners.

“She’s just a badass,” said Judge Culpepper, now a redshirt sophomore at Penn State. “People look at her and they see like, ‘Oh, she’s an NFL wife,’ like she’s probably like prissy and not tough, but my mom, she might be tougher than my dad — and that says a lot because he played nine years in the NFL.”

(Courtesy of Penn State Athletics)

Judge’s older brother, Rex Culpepper, is a Syracuse quarterback and testicular cancer survivor. Judge’s little sister, Honor — named after actress Honor Blackman from the James Bond movie “Goldfinger” — turned down an academic scholarship to Penn State for an athletic scholarship to play basketball at NYU. Not to be outdone in the toughness category by her parents, she once played an AAU basketball game with a broken tooth hanging on by a thread. She pushed it back in and told the coach she’d keep playing. Her parents think she might be their best shot of finally getting a Culpepper to win “Survivor.“

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Brad and Monica have both appeared on “Survivor” since Monica’s first go-around in 2011. They were both on the show in 2013 in the Philippines — calling in the grandparents and relatives as reinforcements for the kids — and Monica was the runner-up that season. Brad went on his second time and became the runner-up in Fiji in 2016.

In recent years, they’ve been more likely to be found in a football stadium, one parent FaceTiming the other during the game so they can see both their sons play college football. Having the whole family under one roof again this spring during the pandemic had its benefits, even if it meant weekly grocery bills in excess of $1,000.

The brothers fired up the Weber grill before and after workouts, Monica hearing them grilling T-bone steaks like clockwork nightly at 9 p.m. The family sat around the fire and played card games and put puzzles together, cherishing the rarity of having everyone home for multiple months for the first time since Rex enrolled at Syracuse.

“They are absolute best friends and extremely loyal to each other,” Brad said of his sons.

As Rex underwent chemotherapy in 2018, going through 20 days and 100 hours of treatment, Judge shaved his head and was right there with Rex. Judge saw his brother at the “lowest of the low,” he said, and now marvels as the Syracuse redshirt senior is cancer-free and as shredded as Judge can ever remember.

“You see some relationships with brothers where they’re too competitive and they don’t want to be around each other at all, whereas each one would sacrifice something of their own to help the other,” Brad said. “As a parent, you’ve done a good job if that’s the case.”

Brad, like he’s done since they were kids, was ready to jump in at any point this spring and lead Judge through drill work whenever he asked. It’s always been important to him that he doesn’t force any workouts or put pressure on them to train. Brad retired from football around the same time Judge was born, so although Judge met the likes of Warren Sapp, John Lynch and Mike Alstott at various team reunion type functions over the years, he didn’t grow up entrenched in locker rooms.

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And unlike his dad, who was a defensive tackle well before college, Judge didn’t play defensive tackle until Penn State recruited him as one and said it wanted him to switch from defensive end. Alabama offered Judge a scholarship as a tight end.

Brad agreed with Penn State coach James Franklin when he sat in the family’s living room and told them he saw Judge as an athletic defensive tackle but knew it would take a few years physically for him to get there. That time is now, as Culpepper is eying an important role in the Nittany Lions’ tackle rotation. Defensive coordinator Brent Pry said Culpepper is a “strong, physical, smart guy that’s been waiting in the wings” and is now ready.

“Now that he’s a defensive tackle, I mean, that’s my briar-patch. I know that,” Brad said. “Three to four times a week, we would go out to in the yard and I’ve got some dummies and I’ve got hand pads and we did drills for almost an hour, you know, three to four times a week after he did weights with his brother. So it was really a great time for Judge and I to connect from a football standpoint. … I think they all understand he’s just now understanding that position and, you know, it takes a while.”

As Judge trained and got a better handle on pass rush moves with Brad giving him pointers, things got a little weird in their neighborhood in early April.

Hundreds of cars drove by, news stations lined the streets of Davis Islands and drones flew overhead. The seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion formerly occupied by Derek Jeter is directly across from the Culpepper residence. Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen and their family moved into the neighborhood. The Culpeppers had a front-row seat for this unwanted circus on Bahama Circle.

“It’s kind of insane,” Judge said. “No one really believes me and I’m OK with that. They can come visit and see for themselves. It was obviously crazy for the first couple days. … We just kind of laid low and didn’t want to impede on Tom Brady’s privacy.

“I’ve waved across our docks. He was on his dock and I was on our dock, and my dad and I were out there and he was talking to us about boat stuff. That’s about as close as we got.”

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Over the years, the Culpepper family grew to know Jeter and his family, and now they’ve already seen Brady, Rob Gronkowski and other celebrities hanging out on the water. They’re sure to respect their privacy and also feel for them because of all the unwanted attention that comes with being a superstar. Though he played in the NFL himself, Brad can work out with Judge, and growing up, they could go to the Little League fields and play catch and lead relatively normal lives — although there was some “Survivor” fame to dodge after the shows aired, as they pointed out.

The Culpeppers’ neighbors can’t even walk the dog without drawing attention. Everyone cooped up at home because of the pandemic only made Brady’s arrival worse.

When Brady does park his boat, he won’t see the Culpeppers’ old University of Florida flag on their boat dock. It’s the alma mater of Judge’s mom, dad, grandfather and uncle but has long been changed to Syracuse, Penn State and NYU flags. There was no pressure from Brad for Judge to go to his alma mater, and though Judge recalled some ticked-off Gators fans because he left home for Pennsylvania, every time Brad sits in Beaver Stadium, he’s reminded of the lure of the place.

Monica sees it often, too. Folding one of Judge’s team-issued T-shirts one day last year — with the word “family” written on it, with every player’s name on it — made her teary-eyed. She snapped a picture of the shirt and sent it to Franklin, telling him she was happy to see her son was so happy.

Sifting through coaching staffs to find genuine connections is in some ways like her ability to read people and try to figure out who to form alliances with on “Survivor.” Some relationships crumble, while others flourish. The head coach, who ate breakfast in their home and asked Brad why his son was so interested in Penn State in the first place when Florida was a clear legacy connection, texted Monica back right away that he was happy she was in town and saw that shirt.

Judge wants to leave his own mark at Penn State. He’s a 4.0 student and history major — just like Brad was — and he also wants to go to law school. As an undergrad, Brad won the Campbell Trophy, widely considered to be the academic Heisman, and that is something for Judge to strive for, too.

“He puts 100 percent effort into everything he’s invested in,” Judge said of his dad. “Growing up and watching that, he’s set the path for me and the path I want to follow. He’s tough as nails. … My parents are really just badass individuals, and I strive every day to try and put that in my life.”

(Top photo: Courtesy of Penn State Athletics)

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