In what continues to be my go-to feel-better story of the year, 7-year old Jack Hoffman is still riding the high of becoming the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ biggest star football player in the program’s long, storied history. (Obviously, I’ve crossed out the Bill Callahan era with a thick, black Magic Marker.) Jack, of course, is the young brain cancer patient who ran for a 69-yard touchdown during the team’s recent spring game, and that was followed up by Upper Deck creating his very own trading card.
Yesterday, Jack and his family got to visit the White House and meet with President Barack Obama for about 15 minutes to talk about the boy’s incredible spring.
The boy’s father, Andy Hoffman, said Obama spent about 15 minutes with his family. The president talked about how he had seen Jack’s now-famous run and discussed new research efforts into cures for cancer.
“We had an opportunity to thank him for putting more national attention on pediatric brain cancer,” Andy Hoffman said. “This is a disease that deserves attention.” (Via USA Today)
Thanks to the Internet’s incredible response to that video of Jack being hoisted up by all of the Nebraska players in front of a crowd of 60,000 fans, this disease is getting a lot more attention than it had previously. Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer also pushed a measure to turn Jack’s birthday of September 26 into National Pediatric Brain Cancer Awareness Day.
The Huskers host South Dakota State the Saturday before Jack’s birthday, so I’d expect to see a tribute before or during halftime of the game. But maybe don’t let him actually play in that one.
And I’m still heavily considering creating a Kickstarter account to fund my trip to uncover all 1,600+ people who disliked that video and publicly shame them with wedgies.
(Banner via the White House)
