From skinny end to 300-pound tackle—every pound Joshua gained came with tears and silent pain

Joshua Farmer wasn’t always a 300-pound wrecking ball on the defensive line. In fact, when he arrived at Florida State, he barely tipped the scales at 240 pounds. Too small. Too light. Too forgotten.

He heard it all.

“You don’t have the size.”
“You’ll never last inside.”
“You’re built wrong.”

But Joshua didn’t argue. He went to work. Coaches told him he needed weight—he gave them weight. What they didn’t see was how he did it.

It wasn’t protein shakes and meal plans. It was peanut butter sandwiches at 2 a.m. It was forcing food down even when grief sat heavy in his chest. Joshua had lost both his parents before age 12. Every pound he gained was a battle with memory, a war with himself.

He’d eat until he cried. Then lift until he couldn’t feel. Then wake up and do it again.

By the end of his college career, Joshua had added over 60 pounds. But not just muscle—armor. Armor made of pain, purpose, and discipline.

That weight turned him into a starting defensive tackle. That weight got him noticed by NFL scouts. That weight, added tear by tear, pound by pound, helped deliver the call that changed his life: the New England Patriots drafting him in Round 4.

Joshua didn’t grow into a monster overnight. He built himself from sorrow, sacrifice, and thousands of forced meals.