The close of the NFL season often sees many players taking on outside endeavors. Much of the time, the players’ efforts focus on assisting in charitable causes.
Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph and his wife Jordan have announced they have raised enough funds to start an awesome project. It will by called “Kyle Rudolph’s End Zone” which will consist of a 2,500 square foot space built onto Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minnesota.
Rudolph shared his inspiration for his hospital project.
“From [the point my brother was born], my mom and dad, myself, countless family members were always in and out of the hospital — me being the 15-month-old big brother, constantly in the way, tripping on his IV cords, medicine lines, just a disaster at all times in the hospital, from what I’ve been told,” Rudolph said Tuesday, per Ben Goessling of ESPN. “We wanted to come up with an idea: Where’s a place where, not only these patients when healthy enough to get out of their rooms, but where can their families go, where can brothers and sisters go, where can friends and family go?”
Per the report, Rudolph was at the hospital a lot as a toddler. His younger brother spent the better part of a year being treated for an aggressive type of cancer called neuroblastoma.
Rudolph makes some excellent points about how uncomfortable hospitals are for those who visit or have to be housed in them. Therefore, “Kyle Rudolph’s End Zone will reportedly be built with a kitchen, lounge, basketball hoop, sports simulator and media hub. How very amazing is that?
According to Goessling, the space is supposed to be open by the beginning of the 2017 NFL season. Rudolph said he will continue to raise funds to provide for future maintenance of the facility. This way it will stay modern, and current to patients’ needs.
This is something really special that we can tell touches Rudolph’s heart personally.
Rudolph is entering his seventh year in the NFL and just achieved a career-best 840 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.