In the spring of 2018, Rex Culpepper was 20 years old and in the middle of a treatment plan that would total about a hundred hours of chemotherapy for testicular cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes. He’d already had surgery. And when Syracuse held its spring football game, he suited up, ran onto the field for the final series, and led his team to a touchdown.
The crowd stood. The moment became the kind of story people tell when they want to explain what courage actually looks like when it’s not being used to sell something.
Rex Culpepper died on Saturday in a dirt bike accident. He was 28. He had been engaged for less than a month.
Our Orange family mourns the loss of Rex Culpepper, who passed away this weekend at the age of 28. Rex lived his life with endless passion, having overcome cancer at the age of 20 while playing for the Orange. Appearing in 30 games, Rex played football as fierce as he lived life.… pic.twitter.com/HT65Ff8b2D
— Syracuse Football (@CuseFootball) March 16, 2026
A Football Family
Culpepper grew up in Tampa, the son of Brad Culpepper, who played nine seasons as a defensive tackle in the NFL for the Vikings, Buccaneers, and Bears. After football, Brad became a personal injury attorney in Tampa. He and his wife, Monica, later became known to reality-TV audiences through Survivor. Rex’s brother Judge played college football at Penn State and Toledo. His sister Honor helped NYU win an NCAA Division III women’s basketball title in 2024. Competition and resilience were the family language. Rex spoke it fluently.
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He Kept Getting Knocked Down
At Plant High School in Tampa, Culpepper threw for 2,145 yards and 21 touchdowns, served as a two-time team captain, led Plant to the regional semifinals as a junior, and earned all-county and all-state honors. Then an injury wiped out his senior season. At Syracuse, he spent five years in a role most fans never notice — the backup who keeps working, keeps suiting up. He bounced between quarterback and tight end, appeared in 30 games, and threw for 1,546 yards and 11 touchdowns. Never the star. Always in the building.
Then came March 2018. Cancer diagnosis. Surgery. Roughly 100 hours of chemo. And the spring game touchdown that made national news — not because of the play, but the person making it. Syracuse created the Jim DaRin Courage Award and gave him the first one. Three months later, he rang the bell at Moffitt Cancer Center. Cancer-free at 20.
“Walking down the hallway and seeing all the nurses who had been with me for so many hours and gone through so much with me, seeing me finally walk out of there,” Culpepper said at the time. “I can’t even put it into words. It felt like beating Clemson.” He came back and played his sophomore season. He kept playing through 2020, finishing his career as a five-year member of the program. Most people who watched Syracuse football during those years wouldn’t have known his name. The people inside that locker room never forgot it.
Then He Built a Life
Culpepper graduated from Syracuse, earned a master’s degree, and then a law degree from Stetson. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2024 and became a practicing attorney in Tampa. Six years after sitting in a chemo chair, he was sitting at the counsel table. He played guitar, wrote music, and rode dirt bikes. Friends described a relentless need to be on the move.
In 2020, he met Savanna Morgan. They were together for six years. She later wrote that she would never take for granted how cool Rex was, or the way he made everyone around him feel like they mattered. In February 2026, he dropped to one knee and proposed. She said yes. They posted the photos.
Less than a month later, he was gone.
Six Years That Felt Like a Lifetime
Syracuse called him someone who “played football as fierce as he lived life.” His teammate Eric Dungey called him “a guy who had zero fear.” His high school coach Hank Brown wrote that beyond the field, Rex had built “a life defined by purpose and determination.” His friend Victor Silva wrote: “You may have passed, but you also damn sure lived. For that we celebrate.”
And Savanna Morgan, the woman who was supposed to marry him:
“Rex didn’t always believe in soulmates, but towards the end he told me that he didn’t realize what having a soulmate felt like until we felt like extensions of each other. You made six years feel like a lifetime, Rexy.”
She added, “I don’t think this Rex-shaped hole inside of me will ever be filled.”
Rex Culpepper is survived by his parents, Brad and Monica, his brother Judge, his sister Honor, and his fiancée, Savanna.