Christmas came a little early this year for Ava Urrea – a 4-year-old Oakland Raiders fan born with a heart defect.
Ava – who’s already undergone 14 surgeries for hypoplastic left heart syndrome – got to spend some time with her favorite team this week thanks to NFL insider Jay Glazer’s Touchdown Dreams program.
The Raiders flew Ava and her family from Las Vegas to Alameda, California, where Glazer tells Fox Sports she was able to tour the team facility and eat lunch with the players. The team even appointed Ava captain for the day and presented her with signed helmets, pigskins and stuffed animals.
But offensive linebacker Menelik Watson went a step further – handing over his weekly game check to Ava’s father.
“Sir, I would like to make sure Ava has the greatest holiday, here is my game check,” Watson told her father, according to the above video.
While Watson is far from the highest-earning player on the team, ProFootballTalk estimates the value of the check to be in the neighborhood of $18,000.
It’s a story the NFL could use more of after a season tarnished with negative headlines ranging from child abuse to domestic violence.
And the good karma seems to have paid off for Oakland – the Raiders beat the Bills 26-24 on Sunday.
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