CHARLOTTE — Brentson Buckner has plenty of experience watching people fight cancer quietly.

When it was his turn to face the disease, he decided he wasn't taking that path.

That's not necessarily a surprise for the gregarious Buckner, who loves to tell stories, who loves to laugh, who loved to share his wisdom when he was a player, with teammates and reporters alike.

But for Buckner, telling this story is personal.

When the former Panthers defensive tackle heard the words of his own diagnosis from his doctor in 2019, he thought back to Sam Mills, watching his former coach run to the practice fields each day in brave defiance of the disease. He thought about standing on the practice field and hearing the original version of the Keep Pounding speech from Mills prior to the playoff game against Dallas, the day a mantra which has resonated through the years was born.

But mostly, he thought about his father, Richard Pitts, who fought his fight alone, surprising his children late in life when they learned the secret he kept from them.

Before Pitts died in November of 2017, Buckner and his sister were meeting with doctors about their father when one of the doctors asked how long he had struggled with prostate cancer.

"My sister was like, oh, you've got the wrong chart," Buckner recalled.

Pitts, a Vietnam veteran, was diagnosed 13 years earlier at a VA hospital but had refused treatment until it was too late, and obviously didn't share the news with his family. That's not necessarily unusual, as there are cultural forces that keep a lot of men from opening up about specific health issues, or vulnerabilities in general, even to those closest to them.

Buckner was coaching in Arizona at that time, home of some of the top cancer treatment centers in the country, so the news was hard for him to process.

"It was hard for me knowing that I was in a place where I could have helped him," Buckner said. "He could have still been here, God willing, or at least had a fighting chance. Had I known or anybody known, I could have easily got him to Arizona; he probably could have gone to the same doctor that helped me, you know what I'm saying?

"And that was hard, especially after I learned that it wasn't a death sentence."

For Buckner, his father's journey helped shape his response to his own diagnosis. He said there were some early symptoms in 2018, and when he was working for the Raiders in Oakland in 2019, their team doctor steered him toward more testing.

He remembered his sister urging him to follow up, since the family history likely increased his risk, so he did. He was back at his offseason home in Arizona when he saw a urologist there, but after getting some blood tests and a biopsy, he went back to enjoying the last few weeks of the summer before he reported to training camp.

He was training with his son Brandon, now a linebacker at Middle Tennessee State, when his phone rang.

"I'm just going about my life; I don't feel ill," Buckner said. "So I was out training my son one day, working him out before he went off before the high school started football camp, and I get the call. So I said, hey Doc, what's up, what's going on? So we talk just like me and you are talking; he asked me about football season, and he said, oh, yeah, your biopsy came back, and there's prostate cancer.

"I almost fainted. I was like, what? He said yes, the left side was good, but the right side had some cancerous cells."

That news hit Buckner harder than any offensive lineman ever did, but it only took a few moments for his perspective to change.

His doctor told him the cancer was in a very early stage, that it didn't appear to have spread. They were in a watch-and-wait phase, telling him there was no need to panic and they could monitor him at regular intervals. As they discussed their options, the doctor brought up the possibility of surgical removal of his prostate but told him there was no rush.

After praying about it with his wife, Buckner opted for surgery after the 2019 season.

"The only thing, it was hard just mentally, going through the whole season knowing that, wow, you've got cancerous cells in your body that's active," Buckner said. "Fortunately, it all worked out."

After his surgery in early 2020, Buckner went through a routine course of testing. The good news was Buckner's blood tests showed his cancer had not spread. He did not need any radiation or other treatment. They caught it early enough, they dealt with it, and in his words, he "went on about life."

And what a life it is.

Buckner can talk about nearly any topic at length, but get him going about his two daughters and his son, and he can fill a notebook.

His oldest daughter, Nia, has graduated from medical school at the University of Pittsburgh and is currently going through rotations at the University of Michigan Hospital en route to becoming a plastic surgeon. Daughter Nya played volleyball at Oregon State, just got a master's degree, and was recently hired as director of student-athlete development there. Son Brandon is graduating in December, with another year of eligibility in football.

"Everything in life is great for us," Buckner said with his trademark laugh. "Me and the wife doing good here in Jacksonville. So I have no complaints."

But having gone through his own fight and watching his father's, he can't help but think about the what-ifs.

"I was talking to my wife, and it was crazy because I said, when I was growing up, nobody in my family ever had cancer until we found out about my dad," he said. "So after Dad had passed, my sister and I are going through all the paperwork, cleaning up the the family house, and she found a trail of letters from the VA."

Those letters went unanswered and not acted upon.

"For some reason, he just didn't want to treat it," Buckner said, his voice trailing off.

When he went back to work for the Cardinals in 2020, one of their team doctors heard the news and responded very matter-of-factly, telling Buckner he had gone through the same diagnosis himself, and that it was very survivable.

"He was like, oh, you'll be OK, I had mine removed eight years ago," Buckner recalled. "In my mind, I'm thinking, oh my God. But I met people who had been through it and seen the good side of it; you know what I mean?

"So it sort of helped it, but I always sit back and wonder what would have happened had Dad told us, let us know? We could have got him to the right doctors or the right treatment so he could still be here. That's tough."

As much as he's grateful for his early diagnosis, the unknown about his father's fate will never escape him.

There's also that other bit of personal context that stayed with Buckner throughout his own fight with cancer.

He was playing here when Sam Mills was diagnosed and continued to coach while he was battling cancer. He saw the man live Keep Pounding every day, never showing his players a sign of weakness, as he sprinted to the practice field.

"I know the meaning of Keep Pounding," Buckner said. "The true meaning, because we saw it, I lived it with him. His strength of showing up to practice every day, every meeting, and we didn't know. Every day, he ran to the practice field, and he ran off the field. We had no clue, you know what I mean?

"It showed the strength that he had to Keep Pounding, to keep moving."

And those two words, which have become foundations for so many people going through similar battles, hit close to home for Buckner for another reason, one which makes him proud to come back this week as the Legend of the Game, and to hit the Keep Pounding drum prior to the fourth quarter of Sunday's game against the Falcons.

"It does my heart well, knowing that the Carolina Panthers adopted that as a team motto that goes with the franchise," he said. "That's something that's going to stand the test of time because it is really a tribute to a great man."

And Buckner was one of the select few who were on the practice field on Jan. 2, 2004, to hear the first version of that speech live.

They didn't know what was coming when Mills began talking, but in hindsight, Buckner knows how inspirational it would become.

"Sam was not overly fiery, but when he spoke, people listened because you have so much respect for him," Buckner said. "But when he came out and said, 'man, I've been battling cancer this whole year and I come to practice, I get my treatments in the morning.' It was like everybody stopped breathing because you just didn't know. And you're sitting there watching this man spill his heart and talk about how he was just always taught in his life, no matter what you're going through, to Keep Pounding, to keep going. Don't let your burdens wear other people down; still, be who you are. I'm sitting there like, man, I've talked to him about playing certain plays and doing this and that, and he's still helping me like nothing's wrong because he don't want to be a burden to nobody. It was hard.

"You hear a lot of great speeches in history. I wonder what it was like when Martin Luther King did 'I Have a Dream' and how those people felt. Or when Abraham Lincoln gave his speech at Gettysburg, what those people felt like. That was a day I'll always remember because I was there when he gave it, and our hearts felt it.

"I just knew then. Each player, to me, was like, I don't know what we're going to do or what we're going through, but man, we've just got to keep going because if he can do that for us, our way to say thanks to him is to go out here on this field and we've got to give it our all, while we can. I was touched. We all were."

And with the example of Mills in his mind, Buckner has chosen to tell his own story now.

He'll talk about how fortunate he is. He'll talk about the blessings of seeing his children grow, of living the good life alongside his wife Denise.

But mostly, he wants people to know that hearing the word cancer from their doctor doesn't mean the end of anything.

"That's why I'm a firm believer of early detection," Buckner said. "You get early detected before it gets too bad so that you can cut it off. That was a blessing for me, that it hadn't spread, and when they took the prostate out they were able to get everything out.

"That's the beauty of that early test."

So now, he wants everyone to know. Test early. Treat as soon as you can, and then follow up routinely (Ultra-sensitive prostate-specific antigen tests, a simple blood test he gets every year with his annual physicals, are an easy way to keep tabs on his condition.)

And making it normal is part of his message now.

Buckner has talked to friends his age, former teammates, whenever the opportunity arises. Any medical diagnosis is a sensitive topic to discuss, but this particular one has been difficult for some to talk about because it's in a sensitive area. What he wants to do is take away the stigma and show them what's possible with early detection and treatment.

"I've talked to guys, and it's like, no, you've got to get tested," he said. "Maybe my experience makes it easier for them. Some of the guys I've talked to, I think I eased some minds about getting tested and the success they've had with surgery. They took care of me, and now everything's in order."

Things are good now. He wants everyone to know that.

And as he reflects on his own good health, and his own good fortune, he can't help but think about his father, and whether he might have had more years, time to create more memories.

And he thinks about his son Brandon, and why he wants him to see a new family tradition being born.

"I always sit back and think because at first you always want to be 'why me, why me?'" Buckner said. "But no, man. It's just a hill; it's part of life. We always run into these hurdles; we have to climb over, go under, or run through them. There's too much to life, and I know my dad lived a full life but it could have been even longer had he just talked and listened to the doctors and went through the treatment.

"So I was just like, I don't want that to be a family curse. I want to be an example of how early detection works and getting the treatments work. Going through it might seem like a rough patch at the time, but it means everything for you and the people around you."