Andy Lee is adjusting to a new team after being traded from the 49ers to the Browns last week, but that’s nowhere near the toughest thing he’s gone through this offseason.
Lee’s wife gave birth to a baby girl they named Madeline in January, and there were immediate complications. Madeline improved briefly but then came down with an infection, and she died at just eight days old.
Because Madeline never got out of intensive care, Lee and his wife were the only people outside the medical staff who ever got to see her. Lee wanted to do something to let the world know about Madeline, and so he has decided that his new jersey number with the Browns will be No. 8, in memory of the eight days she lived.
“I think sometimes, not necessarily by me and my wife, her life can get overlooked. She was here, she was a person but nobody got to meet her, nobody got to see her,” Lee said. “She was really alive and really a person. It’s a way to honor her and kind of just give her some glory she deserves.”
Lee said he is trying to find ways to stay positive during a tough time for his family.
“It’s just kind of changed the mindset of, say, your son’s outside and you don’t feel like getting up and throwing the ball with him because you’re tired. Well, get your butt up and go out there and do it because who knows?” Lee said. “You give everything you can to them because it shows that sometimes you don’t know if something is going to happen. It’s crazy how life is. In a way, that’s one of the positive things to come out of it. Life is really fragile even though sometimes you don’t think about it that way.”
That’s an attitude that should make any fan proud to wear a No. 8 Browns jersey.