Take One for the Team

Normally on Friday, I look around for stories that are more  "filler" type of pieces that didn't make the front page headlines.  Odd, weird or offbeat news that you may or may not of heard about.   Most of the odd types of news stories have the common component of  "That wouldn't make your mother proud!"

But for this week among all the questionable behavior and the "what were they thinking?" stories, I  am  going to talk about a story that  you probably have already heard about. Hopefully, you will enjoy seeing the video one more time.

Crabby Pants is ready to cheer for the Huskers

Just a little background  information....As my long time followers know, my husband and I have taken a number of moves to accommodate his corporate ladder climbing.  Twenty-one moves to be exact.  One of the states we called home for almost 6 years was Nebraska.  It was in Nebraska that our Kiddo #2 went to college and got a couple undergraduate degrees out of the University of Nebraska, so we have had a close up and personal experience with the Huskers.  (or at least our son and his tuition money did)



Sooo...last week when I saw the video of Jack Hoffman running a football down the field at Memorial Stadium, it brought tears to my eyes.  Today for those of you that don't know the story how a 7 year old got to run a ball in front of a crowd of  around 60,000 fans, here is the story.


On April 22, 2011, five year old Jack Hoffman went into the kitchen for breakfast just as he did on any normal morning. That, however, that morning was not to be "normal".  His parents, Andy and Brianna Hoffman noticed their son seemed to be unresponsive.

Jack's parents rushed him to the local hospital, West Holt Memorial in Atkinson, NE where he suffered a grand mal seizure that lasted  nearly30 minutes. Little Jack nearly died of respiratory failure.

After tests, the doctors delivered a grim diagnosis, that Jack had a golf-ball sized brain tumor at the base of his skull.  On May 20th the doctors performed a surgery to try and remove it but because of the location of it were unable to take out much of it.

Over the next several months the seizures continued and a second surgery was scheduled.  This was going to be extremely risky with a possibility of him not being able to survive this dangerous operation.


Before Jack underwent the second surgery, he and his father compiled a bucket list of things he wanted to do, in case the surgery wasn't a success. High on the list was Jack meeting his hero, then-Nebraska running back Rex Burkhead.

Several weeks before Jack's second surgery, the Hoffmans drove the 3 hours to Lincoln, NE where they met Burkhead for lunch and took a tour of Memorial Stadium.  Burkhead promised he would stay in touch.

Miraculously, Jack survived a second brain surgery on Oct. 10, 2011. Surgeons at Boston Children's Hospital were able to extract 95 percent of the tumor, and he hasn't suffered another seizure since the procedure. Now, Jack is nearing the end of a 60-week regimen of chemotherapy, and an MRI last week revealed the chemo has dramatically shrunk what's left of the tumor

While finishing up his college career, Rex Burkhead did stay in touch with the Hoffmans and through this friendship, Jack had become an integral part of the Nebraska program over the last two years. The team and Burkhead started a Nebraska program called Uplifting Athletes, a non-profit that raises money for rare diseases.  They have raised more than $300,000.00 for pediatric brain tumor research.

Which brings the story up to the events of last week.  Andy Hoffman had already planned on taking Jack to the spring game but on Friday night April 5th, Andy got a phone call from the director of football operations, Jeff Jamrog.  The coaches wanted Jack to suit up.

Andy put together a makeshift uniform and told his son about the phone call the following morning.


The day of the game, with 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter, Coach Pelini decided it was the right time to put Jack into the game. He huddled with the quarterback Taylor Martinez to get some direction on the play. Taylor drew a picture on a marker board so Jack could see where to run.  Andy cautioned the team though that if Jack started running the wrong way to steer him in the right direction.

This is what the play looked like.





 Isn't that just about the cutest thing EVER?