Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Pete BLOG: Day 26,632. A tear-jerker story about some 8th grade football players.

Today is Wednesday, October 30, 2013. My stats today: 10 minutes of yoga breathing and stretches, 10 minutes of lifting weights, and 37 minutes of walking = 2.0 miles for an October total of 63.1 miles. My weight again was 166 pounds.

QUOTE for today from Richard Costolo, CEO, Twitter: "Not only can you not plan the impact you're going to have, you often won't recognize it even while you're having it."

My THOUGHTS today are on an email I received from son Brad.

The email was filmed by CBS News - it was the story of what some 8th grade football players did in one of their games at a Middle School in Michigan. On the team was a mentally handicapped teammate who had never scored a touchdown. The kid was also physically much smaller than his teammates. Some of the team leaders decided on their own that they were going to let this handicapped kid score a touchdown - all the other players agreed to go along with the plan. They didn't tell the coaches what their plan was. This is what they did: Even though they could have easily scored the kid carrying the ball ran to the one foot line and deliberately fell down. Then they asked the coaches to let this kid come in and score a touchdown. He came in and scored the touchdown and his teammates carried him off the field on their shoulders. They asked the handicapped kid what it felt like to score a touchdown - he answered with the word - "AWESOME." - with a big smile on his face.

What a neat story and what a testament to the goodness and thoughtfulness of a bunch of 13-14 year-old 8th grade football players. Some of the players were interviewed  after the game and I was so impressed with the maturity of these boys. They felt so good about what they had done. One of the players said this good deed changed his way of thinking about life - from being self-centered to thinking about other people and their struggles in life.

I watched it twice and found myself tearing up. If you get a chance you better see it. It will make you good about the young people in America.


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