A quick thread...

As many of you know, I am from Newtown, CT. Two of my best friends from childhood got married and returned home to live in our town. They lost their first child at the Sandy Hook school shooting (1/5)

In the ensuing media coverage and family profiles after the hysteria of the shooting finally settled down, it became known that their boys were football fans and were just starting their Pop Warner "careers" when they lost their sister. (2/5)

There were many people that reached out and local teams invited all families to come to games, bring their surviving children to meet players to help treat them to something fun to get their minds off their loss. These were all incredibly kind and appreciated by my friends. (3/5)

But one thing stood out. Completely unsolicited and out of the blue, an autographed football arrived at their house in the mail one day. The sender included a touching note and it was just so kind that he would think of their boys. (4/5)

He had long since retired and the boys didn't know who he was, let alone ask their parents for his jersey. It was just the right thing for a Hall of Fame player and a Hall of Fame person to do for a grieving family of young football players.

Thank you, Gale Sayers. RIP (5/5)