Joshua Miles was back in his hometown of Baltimore, cracking crabs and sipping beers with the boys.
Football-obsessed during the season, the 27-year-old Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle was enjoying some downtime last March before offseason workouts picked up.
Not much could have soured dinner that evening — a long-awaited get-together among four longtime friends — but an unexpected phone call brought the festive atmosphere to a halt.
“It suddenly felt,” Miles said, “like the Last Supper.”
On the other end was Cardinals head athletic trainer Tom Reed, updating Miles on the MRI results from a minor back injury he suffered while lifting weights earlier in the week.
“I could hear the weight in Tom’s voice,” Miles said. “He says, ‘Yeah, there is no problem with your back. They think it’s a pulled muscle but nothing tore.’ And I’m like, ‘So why do you sound like this?’”
Then came the terrifying news: the scan found a two-and-a-half inch mass on Miles’ neck. In a best-case scenario, it was nothing, just a smudge on the machine. Worst-case, it was cancer.
“Excuse me?” Miles said incredulously to Reed. “I was reeling.”
***
Miles — who signed with the Falcons as an unrestricted free agent last week — is grateful for the MRI now, but didn’t see a need for it at the time.
Adding to the OL!
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) March 31, 2023
He was lifting at the Cardinals’ practice facility in March of 2022 when he felt some tightness in his back. Heading into a contract year and looking to make an impact after three years as a backup, Miles wanted to avoid the training room.
“You don’t want to bug people and you don’t want to seem like a primadonna,” Miles told me last Wednesday between sips of iced tea at a coffeehouse in Tempe. “I don’t pride myself on being a tough guy or anything like that, but some things just aren’t worth mentioning.”
Miles finished the workout, then jumped in the hot tub to feel better. The next morning he thought the injury was gone, but after getting through six shoulder shrugs, the pain intensified.
Cardinals offensive lineman Justin Murray had dealt with major back issues the year prior, so Reed insisted on the MRI to make sure Miles’ issue was minor.
“I told him no twice, but he basically made me go,” Miles said.
***
For three weeks last March and April — from Reed’s phone call until a few days after surgery — Miles knew he had a tumor the size of a silver dollar in his neck, but was unsure if it was cancerous.
The mass had been growing for at least 10-to-12 years. The doctors called it a ticking time bomb.
“I felt like I had failed him because it was something that I had missed,” Joshua Miles’ mother, Nancy, told me over the phone from Baltimore. “I remember having those feelings of guilt, and the feeling of being helpless. But I did not feel hopeless. There was hope.”
The biopsy results were going to determine the trajectory of Joshua Miles’ life, but they weren’t the only concern.
The tumor was so close to his right Parotid gland — a salivary gland that sits just in front of the ear — that the first specialist Miles saw was not comfortable performing the surgery. One misstep could have led to facial paralysis or blurred vision.
He was instead sent to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, where Dr. Michael Hinni was tasked with the job. Miles was nervous. Hinni, cocky as hell.
“Michael Hinni came in there like Michael Jordan,” Miles said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, I haven’t even seen your MRI yet but this is like my 80th one of these surgeries. I do this all the time.’ I’m in there shaking in my boots but he’s like, ‘Nah, I got it, bro.’ It was like watching Steph Curry win the 3-point shootout. He knew he had it, and he put it on display.”
Hinni was as advertised, clearing out the entire tumor during the surgery, a critical step so it wouldn’t grow back. A piece was sent to the lab to be diced up and examined.
Miles slept upright the first night with a drainage hose connected to his neck. The pain from the surgery eventually subsided, but the incision left a prominent mark underneath his ear.
“Young Scarface,” Miles said.
A few days after the surgery, Miles returned to the Mayo Clinic to get his stitches removed, and to hear the results of the biopsy from Hinni.
First, some good news: The tumor was benign.
Then, some bad news: It had been slowly growing for so long that pre-cancerous cells had started to form. If the mass had been left unchecked for another 18 months, the tumor could have become cancerous.
But then, the sigh of relief: The mass was found in time by that fateful MRI. The possibility of cancer was eradicated by the surgery.
“All I remember is hearing, ‘Joshua should make a complete and full recovery,’” Nancy said. “Everything else is a blur.”
As he relays this part of the story to me, Miles looks down at the table and exhales deeply.
“I just thank God every day, dude,” Miles said. “It’s so weird talking about it. It’s so weird thinking about it. I dodged a bullet. I always say I usually have bad luck. Maybe I was saving up all the good luck for this one.”
Miles was immobilized for a week-and-a-half post-surgery.
The doctors told him to take a month off to recover, after which he could return to the Cardinals and resume his workouts.
“Thirty days on the dot, I was back to see (strength coach) Buddy Morris,” Miles said. “I was really ready to get back to it.”
He returned for OTAs, with quite the story to tell about his spring break.
Miles had grown close with the other offensive linemen since becoming a seventh-round pick in 2019, and shared the shocking news with them.
Veteran left tackle D.J. Humphries was quick to give reassurance, in his own unique way.
“Hump told it to me super real,” Miles said. “He was like, ‘You’ll be alright. They took one out of Trent Williams’ f—ing head, so you’ll be alright.’ I was like, ‘You know what? That’s a great point.”
Trent Williams opening up about when he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
(🎥: @IAMATHLETEpod) pic.twitter.com/YYBuXIcrkX
— Action Network NFL (@ActionNetNFL) March 13, 2022
When Miles went to offensive line coach Sean Kugler and assistant Brian Natkin with the update, they were befuddled.
“They were like, ‘You got tumor surgery?’” Miles said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, man. I’m kind of waiting for the nerves to reattach in my face.’ They’re like, ‘Holy sh—! But you’re good? Alright, man, get out there then. You got this.’ I didn’t miss any time in OTAs or any time in camp.”
Miles was encouraged by his training camp performance and earned public praise from then-general manager Steve Keim.
However, he tore up his ankle in a preseason game against the Tennessee Titans and landed on season-ending injured reserve. Though it was a setback, he is healed now.
“I’ve made a full recovery,” Miles said. “I’ve been slam-dunking medicine balls at EXOS in Phoenix.”
Despite never becoming a starter in his four years with the Cardinals, Miles had interest from multiple teams in free agency, ultimately deciding on the Falcons over the Steelers and others.
While he will attempt to make his mark in Atlanta, Miles will never forget his stint in Arizona.
“My grandmother used to always say, ‘It’s good luck when you see a redbird,’” Miles said. “It’s funny I became a Cardinal. It just seemed like kismet, just divine, that I ended up out here. Greater than that, they catch this tumor.”
***
Reed, who couldn’t be reached for comment, was recently fired by the Cardinals in the wake of the team’s poor NFLPA report card.
While the facilities were given failing grades across the board, the strength coaches and the trainers were graded favorably by the players.
When news broke of Reed’s dismissal, multiple former Cardinals players voiced their support for the trainer who gave 15 years of service to the team.
Tom one of the best in the business!
— Chase Edmonds (@ChaseEdmonds22) March 20, 2023
Big facts!!!
— Larry Fitzgerald (@LarryFitzgerald) March 21, 2023
No one was more grateful for Reed’s presence than Miles.
He said Reed was the type of guy who never punched a clock or tried to leave the facility early. He connected with players and prioritized their well-being.
Miles gave Reed an A-plus on the report card and a gift during the holiday season.
“At Christmas I went and bought him this fat ass bottle of 1942 Don Julio,” Miles said. “I don’t even know if Tom drinks or not but I spent $300 on that bottle because he saved my life.”
Nancy is eternally appreciative of Reed’s diligence.
“Joshua played sports since he was five or six years old and has gotten physicals every year,” she said. “Even the NFL, when he went to the combine those doctors were very, very thorough. Somehow, everybody missed it except for Tom. I’ve never gotten a chance to meet Tom. I hope someday I can meet him and give him a hug.”
Miles went to HBCU Morgan State and was far from a sure thing to get drafted. And even though the Cardinals took him in the seventh round, he was far from a sure thing to stick in the NFL.
But now he’s entering his fifth season in the league, a longer tenure than many of the players picked before him.
He shudders to think of the consequences if he didn’t make it in the NFL. The chances of the mass being found would have decreased exponentially.
“It’s a crazy thought, but it’s true: I probably never would’ve had an MRI on my back,” Miles said. “That ain’t cheap. I’ve been extremely blessed to live my dream. And then having my life saved by living my dream? The pics are gnarly and the scar is not healing the best, but as long as I can function, man, it’s such a blessing.”
Miles, who’s had multiple family members pass away from cancer, has been advised to get checkups every six months indefinitely to make sure a tumor doesn’t return.
“Something that’s made me put it off is re-living the whole thing,” Miles said. “You start thinking about your own mortality. Weird thoughts go through your mind, paranoid thoughts. But it’s something I gotta do. God blessed me before and I doubt he’d stop now.”
While her son’s long-term prognosis is good, Nancy feels sadness when re-living the ordeal. She hopes that, as more time passes, relief will come.
“I still worry about Josh,” Nancy said. “I just realize how fragile life is. You take for granted that your kids will be fine. They’ll grow up, go to college, get a job. Everything will be fine. Deep down inside, that experience is still very real to me.”
The narrow escape came into focus again a couple months ago, when Miles got on a plane and the woman sitting next to him peered at his neck.
That’s a hell of a scar, she said.
“I told her the story, and I get halfway through when she says, ‘on your Parotid artery,’” Miles said.
The woman’s son had the same issue, but it went unchecked for years longer. He was only given a 12% chance to live, and though he made it through, the woman told Miles her son lost mobility in his hands and fingers from radiation.
“I can’t even put into words or convey with emotion just how grateful I am,” Miles said. “A lot of us get jaded at times. The people who loved me were there. They called. They sent things. I had teammates send me dinner.
“It’s changed my perspective and changed the way I see the world. I was always grateful, especially being one of the few HBCU guys to get drafted, the first player drafted in 16 years (from Morgan State), but it makes you so grateful for life. You smell the roses a little bit more. Colors are more vivid. This was my first near-death experience. Hopefully first and last.”
