COSTA MESA, Calif. -- For all the hard work that comes with becoming a college football player in a Division I power conference, and then being drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers in the second round of the 2021 NFL draft, there is one series of moments that Asante Samuel Jr. points to as being the key to who he is.
That came when he was 14 and his mother, Candace Doe, came back from the doctor after a week of dizzy spells and announced to her family that she had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.