He made two quick phone calls, one to his wife, Shannon, and one to his father, former NFL coach Jim E. Mora.

He said, “Dad … what do I do?”

Dad didn’t know.

So Mora followed his instincts, got in his car, drove to San Clemente and he pulled the family in tight.

There was nothing else he could think of doing.

“Even if you think you can imagine, you can’t,” Mora said. “Even though you spend time around them, console them, there’s no way you can step inside their lives and understand the grief they’re feeling. It’s so important to just be there for them, to put your arms around them, and not even say anything to them.”

A FAMILY THING

Pasquale’s death shook multiple communities to their core, but it did not stop time.

It happened on a Saturday night in a bye week, when many local players headed home for the weekend. To a man, they knew it could have been any of them.

They mourned together and sat together — sometimes quietly, sometimes sharing stories of Nick — and they returned to practice, which was closed to the media. This had become a family thing.