Pittsburgh Steelers running back James Conner isn’t typically a chatty guy. When speaking to the media, Conner usually plays it fairly close to the vest in interviews and comes across fairly softspoken. So it was incredibly refreshing to hear Conner really open up and talk when he appeared on the YouTube channel of rapper Mike Stud for his podcast Ya Neva Know.

If you have some time, I’d invite you to sit and give his video a watch. It’s a great look at a more honest and open Conner than the one we see publicly just as a running back for the Steelers. Conner talks about much of his life including his time in college, dealing with a knee injury then cancer and how it all led him to the NFL.

Hearing Conner say the doctors told him he only had about a week if they hadn’t caught his cancer when they did is sobering and frankly terrifying. But hearing him follow it up with him wanting to make the Pro Bowl every year just reinforces how much Conner fits the Steelers as a player and a person.