Lions center Frank Ragnow agreed to a $54 million contract extension this week, and he said being able to take care of his parents financially has long been his goal.
When Ragnow was in college at Arkansas, his father died of a heart attack on the day of a game, and Ragnow said he wishes his dad could be here to see his NFL success.
“When you sign a contract like this it’s kind of hard to digest that amount of money. It must have hit me today. Me and my dad and my mom, we’ve kind of planned this. This has always kind of been the goal, since day one. I was at my mom’s house yesterday and we were going through one of my school projects,” Ragnow said. “I wrote that my goal was to make it to the NFL and take care of my parents. My dad and my mom are my people and I’m very grateful for them. My dad’s not here but I’m very excited to take care of my mom because I had an amazing childhood. I’m proud of the way I was raised, how I was raised and my upbringing. To be able to give back to my mom -- I wish I could give back to my dad and go fishing with him -- but to give back to my mom means everything in the world.”
Ragnow got emotional when telling reporters about his dad and then said, “He’d probably call me a schmo for crying in national media.”