In the Spirit of Football

I am not a big football fan, but I like Peyton Manning.  Here's one reason why.

Legendary quarterback Peyton Manning no doubt receives stacks of fan mail every day. However, one letter from an Alaska woman got his attention, and led to a call from the police — and an incredible opportunity.

Kristen Patterson grew up in Indiana, a state where Manning used to play football with the Indianapolis Colts. Both the woman and her husband, Army Sgt. Ryan Patterson, are major fans of the NFL star.

When Kristen asked Manning to simply say “hello” to her veteran husband, she had no idea that he would even open the letter. What actually happened shocked her: She received a call from the Alaska State Troopers, who were trying to locate her on behalf of Peyton Manning.

“When I got a call from (an Alaska) State Trooper they asked if I wrote a letter to Peyton Manning,” Patterson said, according to 9News. It turns out that Manning wanted to meet with her and her husband, but couldn’t locate them.

That letter had apparently made a big impression on the star, who now plays for the Denver Broncos:

“My name is Kristen Patterson. I am writing to ask a question. You see my husband is a HUGE fan, and when I say HUGE I mean it. He is currently serving our country in the United States Army and has deployed twice to Afghanistan,” wrote the woman in her letter to Manning.

“He would set alarms to wake up at odd hours in the night just to listen to your football games. We recently had to move across the country for the Army and he tried to get us stationed in Colorado just so he could ensure that he would never miss your games.”

The letter continued, “We will be attending the Bengals vs. Broncos game on December 22, 2014, while home for the holidays, and it would mean so much to my husband if you might be able to find the time to just even say hello, not to mention it would make me to coolest wife ever of all time.”

“I know you are a busy man, and if you can’t, it will be ok. I just thought I might ask in the rare chance that you might agree to this,” Patterson’s letter explained.

When the police called Kristen, she was understandably confused about the call. However, the police explained that Manning had arranged the call in order to keep it a secret from Sgt. Patterson.

In her enthusiasm about writing the letter to the quarterback, Kristen Patterson had neglected to include her phone number or other contact information. Amazingly, Peyton Manning gave his personal assistants the task of tracking her down… all the way to Alaska.
According to Mad World News, both Kristen Patterson and Peyton Manning were able to keep the meeting secret until the day before the Bengals vs. Broncos football game.

The veteran of Afghanistan was clearly excited to meet the star player, but assumed that it would be an impersonal group interaction in the hotel lobby. Then Peyton Manning surprised the Patterson’s again: They were escorted to a private conference room for a one-on-one meeting with the famous quarterback.

When Manning arrived, he personally thanked Sgt. Patterson for his military service. “He seemed genuinely tickled that we lived in North Pole, Alaska. He said, ‘You guys are really hard to find,’” Ryan Patterson recalled.

“(Kristen) enjoyed the fact that she is the greatest wife ever and there was nothing I could ever do to top this,” the solider explained. “If you asked me who is the one person, anybody in the world, I want to meet, I would immediately say Peyton Manning and she made that happen.”

It would have been easy for Manning to simply ignore the letter — but he went out of his way to do something special for a veteran.


Here's another:

Cindy Harris, who was diagnosed with cancer about two years ago, was recently given approximately one month to live upon the sudden, rapid growth of the disease.

According to KRDO, her family immediately began making plans to try to get Harris to meet her favorite NFL quarterback, Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos, whom she absolutely adores. They spread Harris’ story far and wide on social media and worked to get the attention of local media outlets.

Indeed, she did get the Denver Broncos’ attention. However, Manning wasn’t able to visit Harris as he was getting ready for the AFC Championship game against the New England Patriots.

So, instead, Manning called her on the phone.

“I just want you to know that I’m glad to hear you’re such a big Broncos fan and supporter of mine. And, I appreciate that and that you are in my thoughts and in my prayers,” Manning told her.

“I know you’re going through a tough fight right now and you have a lot of people pulling for you and praying for you and you can add me to that list,” he concluded.

No matter which team you pull for, you have to give a little love to Peyton Manning. He’s a class act.

Needless to say, Harris was absolutely thrilled by the personal call — and the two free playoff tickets donated to her by the Reserve Casino Hotel, which had also heard about her situation. She attended the game with her daughter Bri and said that they had an incredible time together among the roaring crowd.

“It’s a big memory,” Harris said. “I want (Bri) to take this back and remember. I love the Broncos and I am glad that they did this for me.”

Often the NFL can appear to be a cesspool of cheap hits, foul language and general thuggishness — however, Peyton Manning takes the NFL to another level with his class, kindness and respect for the game of football.

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