Life
Football player knows opponent’s mother is battling cancer – kneels with him to pray after game
The surprising moment was incredibly heartwarming.
Kirsten Spruch
11.14.19

The game of football — or any sport, actually — can get quite competitive. After all, that is the whole idea behind sports. Two teams or players fight each other until one person wins and the other loses… That’s it. No emotions, no personal issues. Just pure sport.

This was not necessarily the case for Ty Jordan, a football player and student at West Mesquite High School in Sherman, Texas. One night suddenly, winning the game was not his first priority.

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Twitter

Late last year, in December 2018, the player’s mother was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. She learned that she also had bone cancer less than a month after that.

His family needed to give every ounce of support they had in order for the mother to be able to fight for her life.

Thankfully, it wasn’t just his family who was giving their support. Ty’s teammates have been there for him the whole way through, as well as some opponents.

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Twitter

Back in the old days, Ty used to play with Sherman High School senior Gage Smith on a select team.

Now they are on opposite teams and they recently had to play against each other. While the natural competitiveness of football could have easily gotten in the way the night of the game, it did not. Gage wanted Ty to know that he was personally there for him, first and foremost.

After the game, Gage approached Ty.

He shook his hand and then kneeled down to pray for his mother with his old friend. It was a beautiful, tear-jerking gesture.

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Twitter

The wife of Sherman High School coach J.D. Martinez took note and captured the moment by taking a photo. Then she sent it to Ty’s aunt, Takka, who then proceeded to share the compassionate exchange on Twitter.

“#GageSmith thanks for praying and speaking LIFE into my nephew, Ty Jordan, you are blessed & amazing,” she wrote.

“Football brings people together in so many different ways, and that was just one example of it that night,” Gage said later, explaining that that moment was for Ty and his family, not for public recognition (the Tweet went viral after Takka posted it).

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Twitter

Coach Martinez also weighs in and agrees that his reactions are nothing but respected. He goes on to say that Gage has excellent character and always has.

“He’s a true leader and he has compassion and it followed through for a lot of the guys on the team,” Coach Martinez said. “It’s pretty special that kind of everybody gets to see really what he is, he’s that type of kid all the time, it’s just not in front of the cameras or anything like that, he’s like that every day.”

“Be careful how you treat people because you just might be entertaining an angel!!” Takka also wrote in the now-viral moment.

“I know neither of you. I’m in Kentucky and not even a sports fan,” a stranger responded on Twitter. “But this really touched me. I shared it even. We could all learn a lesson from these two fine young men. Everyone is in my prayers.”

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