A 12-year-old from boy from Yukon, Oklahoma decided to hand-write letters to the owners, CEO’s or presidents of each of the 32 NFL teams while he was home sick around the Christmas holiday.
Heather Pope, mom of 12-year-old Cade, said he was “kind of bored and needed something to occupy his time.” Therefore, Cade got his mom’s permission to start writing 32 letters. The only team who personally wrote a letter in response to Cade was the Carolina Panthers and owner Jerry Richardson.
The letter Cade wrote said this (via ABC News).
My family and I love football. We play fantasy football and watch NFL games every weekend. My parents are St. Louis Ram’s fans. My brother is a Kansas City Chiefs fan. I don’t have a team to cheer for yet. I am ready to pick an NFL team to cheer on for a lifetime!”
It took a lot of Cade’s time to hand-write each of the letters. He sent 16 letters out to the NFC teams on December 26 and the other 16 letters out to the AFC teams on January 5.
When the mail arrived last Thursday, there was a package containing not only a return letter hand-written from Richardson, but an autographed helmet.
Part of the response from Richardson said
We would be honored if our Carolina Panthers became your team. We would make you proud by the classy way we would represent you.
At the time the package and return letter arrived, Cade was at school. But his mom texted him a photo and gave the the hint that one of the teams who wrote back was in the playoffs. Cade’s first guess was the Carolina Panthers.
Regarding Richardson’s prompt and endearing response, Carolina Panthers’ Director of Communications Steven Drummond commented with this.
He is one of those owners who will get the mail every day and read it and always write handwritten responses. Richardson takes fan mail extremely seriously.
It would appear that the Panthers have a new fan for life. What an awesome way to handle fan mail.
Photo: ABC News