NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Do you want to hear a joke?
"What did the car say to the traffic light?" said 9-year-old AJ Cucksey, trying hard not to crack a smile.
"Don't look, I'm changing."
He can't hide the smile anymore.
"I thought that was pretty funny."
Hiding a smile is something AJ seems to struggle with. He loves telling jokes, almost as much as he loves football.
His favorite team?
"I'm a big Steelers fan."
His favorite play---
"Josh Dobbs," he said under his breath before you can even finish asking the question.
Chances are you already knew that. AJ is well known in the Vols community for his tight bond with the VFL.
Dobbs and AJ go way back, all the way back to the Knoxville days. They talk, they play Madden, they see each other on holidays. He's essentially AJ's older brother. No wonder he looks up to the quarterback.
"He came to the NFL to try his hardest and not give up, and that's what I like about Josh."
AJ knows a thing or two about not giving up.
He fights everyday. His health struggles are always there.
Eight brain tumors, some inoperable, have made life difficult.
"Josh is very supportive of us even in the worst times; he was always there for us, always checking on AJ," John Cucksey, AJ's dad, said.
When Dobbs entered the NFL Draft, the family decided their football allegiance would go with him, so that meant Pittsburgh became the place to be.
They'd alreadty seen one Steelers game (a comeback win against Cincinnati), but Dobbs barely saw the field.
On Sunday night, the family had an opportunity to see their friend play in the state where they first met.
Earlier in the week, Josh Cucksey surprised AJ with tickets to the Steelers game against the Tennessee Titans in Nashville-- and a sweet Steelers logo shaved into the back of his head.
Nothing was going to stop AJ from seeing Dobbs and fellow VFL LaTroy Lewis play. Not even chemo, which he had just a few days earlier.
"I don't want to get him excited, and then treatment really mess him up, and he wasn't able to attend," Josh Cucksey said Sunday. "Fortunately he's doing great, we're in Nashville getting ready to root them on."
The friendships AJ has built over football, whether it be with Dobbs, Lewis or the Maryville Rebel football team, have given him courage, strength and a reason to laugh in even the toughest of times.
"They talk like they're brothers, they can just spend time with each other and not care about everything else that's going on-- not care about the pressure of SEC play or the treatments he's going through, they can just talk to each other," Josh Cucksey said.
Dobbs constantly serves as a source of motivation for AJ.
"It motivates me inside," AJ explained. "Sometimes I feel down and I just think come on, I'm not gonna be able to make it through this."
And then he thinks of Dobbs.
"Maybe I'll have to rethink about this, maybe I'm just being mean to myself, and thinking I can't do this, when I actually can," AJ said.
It's a story of shared inspiration and fellowship: going through life's toughest struggles with someone who inspires the other to get through whatever challenge lies ahead.
And by the way, the Steelers did win-- the final score was 18 to 6 against the Titans.