Peyton Manning Reaches Out To Family Of Logan Brown, Teenage Fan Killed By Drunk Driver


The NFL has received a lot of bad press lately. Whether it’s been stories on domestic violence, drunk driving, animal abuse or rape, the National Football League has not had a lot of positive light shone on it this year. This week, Superstar quarterback and all-around-nice-guy Peyton Manning managed to be a shining star in an association fraught with darkness by reaching out to the family of Logan Brown, a young Manning fan who was killed by a drunk driver in March.

Gayle Ricketts, Logan’s grandmother, wrote a letter to Manning in March, shortly after her grandson’s untimely and tragic death, to tell the ex-Colt that he had lost a true fan.

“As a grandmother I felt like I should let Peyton know this young man idolized him and what he meant in his life.”

This past Tuesday, on what would have been Logan’s sixteenth birthday, Brown’s family received a special birthday surprise they weren’t expecting. A hand-written letter from Manning himself, along with an autographed photo. In the letter to Logan’s family, Peyton wrote that he was “honored that he was such a big fan of mine,” and the autographed picture had the inscription “In memory of Logan Allen Brown” scrawled above Manning’s signature.

Peyton Manning Reaches Out To Family Of Logan Brown, Teenage Fan Killed By Drunk Driver

“It blew me away,” Ricketts said. “I called Charles [Logan’s father] when the letter came. I didn’t even open it. I called Charles to come over. I said the Broncos answered me.”

Logan’s family said he became a fan of Peyton Manning after the family took him to a Colts game when he was young. When Manning moved to the Denver Broncos, so did Logan’s loyalty. The family had always planned to bring Logan to a Broncos game one day, but sadly, after the accident in March — in which Logan and two of his friends were in a head-on collision with a drunk driver who’s blood-alcohol content was four times the legal limit — that game would never come.

Peyton reaching out to Brown’s family isn’t just a gift. The family is hailing him as an inspiration.

“To take the time to send something back to a situation in Evansville, Indiana that he probably doesn’t know anything about,” Charles said. “It’s important to see that they’re humans and for these other kids to see you never forget where you come from.”

“And I know Logan is up there looking down. He’s smiling. I think he will be happy,” Ricketts added.

In a time when every other week a negative story linked to the NFL flashes across news outlets, it’s nice to see something positive attributed to the league. Peyton Manning reaching out to the family of Logan Brown may have been a small gesture on his part, but it meant the world to a family that is still in the process of grieving their loss.

[Image Credits:Dustin Bradford / Getty Images and Fox News]

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