Football Team Makes Boy With Cerebral Palsy Captain For A Day

October 14, 2019

A youth football team in Illinois made a 7-year-old fan with cerebral palsy an honorary captain for a day and even gave him the chance to score a touchdown.

Bryson Jenkins
Bryson Jenkins / Credit: Brittany Jenkins

Bryson Jenkins is now an official member of the Grant Jr. Bulldogs youth football team in Fox Lake.

"They [the coaches] said, 'Bryson is now permanently on our roster'," Brittany Jenkins, Bryson's mother, said.

Jenkins said even though her son in nonverbal, she knows he loves football.

"Since he was a baby he would always sit and watch football with my husband and as he got older someone gave him a football as a present and he carries it around the house with him," she told Fox 13. "When he sees that football he gets very excited."

 

On October 5, Bryson got to go through the banner with the team as they entered the field. The team then started chanting his name. He also got to do the coin toss and was able to watch the game with the team from the sidelines.

"When we got to the field, the team of boys came over and said 'Hi' to Bryson, gave him high-fives, and they were so warm and welcoming to Bryson even though they had not met him before," Jenkins said.

"I think the most amazing part of this is, the coaches told us after the game that the boys weren't told to do any of that. They decided on their own to start chanting Bryson's name and just be so involved with him."

With 46 seconds remaining on the clock the team called his number, 85, to the field and, with the help of his father, Bryson scored a touchdown.

The crowd went wild.

"It brought me to tears more than one time that day," Jenkins said. "First of all, I never imagined he would ever be on a football field, but also because it's not very often that people are so accepting of him."