This wasn’t a great week for the NFL or its players.
Aaron Hernandez is in jail on murder charges, Ausar Walcott faces attempted murder charges and C0lts safety Joe Lefeged was arrested on gun charges on Saturday to cap off a depressing week for the league. Thankfully, there are flip sides to those coins.
Paola Boivin of the Arizona Republic highlights one of them by sharing the story of six-year-old Izaiah Morales. Morales suffers from something called Chiari Malformation, a structural defect in his cerebellum that causes headaches and affects his balance, and faced surgery to try to repair the problem. His mother Patricia wanted to find ways to comfort him before the surgery and found a letter Izaiah wrote to Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald in his school journal that said his dream was to meet Fitzgerald and become a football player. Patricia emailed the letter to the team and got an immediate response.
Fitzgerald, who was out of town, called Izaiah and invited him to a game for a visit on the sideline. The Cardinals also sent another contingent of players and the team’s mascot to visit with Izaiah in person.
“Major props to the Cardinals,” Patricia Morales said. “I’ve always liked the Cardinals and Larry Fitzgerald, but they gained a lot of respect.”
Izaiah is home after the surgery and doing well, which we hope remains the case so that he can pursue his dream of following in Fitzgerald’s footsteps as both a player and a man who does the right thing for those in need of a helping hand.