Raiders offensive lineman donates game check to 4-year-old with rare heart condition

SB Nation ^ | December 21, 2014 | Rodger Sherman

[SunkenCiv]

The Raiders went above and beyond for the family of 4-year-old Ava Urrera -- especially offensive lineman Menelik Watson.

I can't quite say I've ever heard anything like the story of the Oakland Raiders and 4-year-old Ava Urrera of Las Vegas, which Jay Glazer just told on Fox's NFL Sunday pregame show.

Urrera has a heart condition Glazer described as equivalent to having "half a heart," and this post indicates doctors aren't too hopeful. Glazer had told the Raiders about her story, and they put together an amazing experience for her and her family: they made her captain for a day, showed her and her family everything around their facilities, tickets to the game, the whole shebang.

But second-year offensive lineman Menelik Watson went above and beyond: without being prompted, he gave the Urreras his check for the week, worth $18,000, telling them to have a happy holiday. An entire week's game check isn't chicken scratch for an NFL player, and it wasn't a huge photo op or anything -- just out of the goodness of Watson's heart when not that many people were watching. Amazing move by the second-year player out of Florida State University.

Kudos to Watson, and best wishes and happy holidays to the Urreras.

[SunkenCiv]

I heard this same story on Fox NFL this afternoon (minus the amount of the check).

[Perdogg]

[Riley]

I’m not a football fan at all, but this is a classy move. Used to live in Oakland when I was a kid, mixed feelings about the place. This is a nice positive.

[Celtic Conservative]

Every once in a while somebody does something classy and I gotta say “good for you sir and way to go!”

CC

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve never lived there or wanted to, or even visited (or wanted to), the closest encounter was gazing across the Bay during a walk in SF. I’ve never wanted to go back to SF, either. :’) That was the year before the 1989 quake, so I saw the old bay bridge to Oaktown prior to the partial collapse.

And I’ve never been a fan of Raiders fans (sorry, P-dogg), probably unfairly, but that whole dress-in-black gangsta horsecrap made me sick. Glad that fell apart as a consequence of the team having a bunch of losing years, oh, and moving to LA and then back.

This story was wonderful. I thought Jay’s dam was going to burst a couple of times as he told the story, and I know mine was.

[SunkenCiv]

word.

[KC Burke]

As a Chiefs fan I can’t abide the Oakland Raiders football team as a matter of genetics.

This lineman has raised them up. He is a true man of virtue and character.

[Riley]

I was in 4th grade. It was my first experience with race hatred- I got my ass beaten down for being white across the street from my Mom’s apartment, by a bunch of older kids I didn’t even see before the first blow landed. They glided up on bikes and dismounted on the fly behind me.

I refused and still do, to play the race-hatred game. That’s for morons who have nothing but simple-minded violence in their lives.

That was a long time ago. Right now if I had the pile of dough that I’d need to do it, I’d move back to a mountainous part of the West that I used to (later) live in and set up an inconspicuous, well-armed enclave.

Speaking of SF, Fifth generation San Franciscan. I love that city, but consider it occupied territory. I visit occasionally. Miss it, as it was.

If somebody, even an Oakland Raider, does something praiseworthy, then I’m all for that. :-)

Oh, I was there for the quake. The bridge looked the same after they fixed it as before.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) That’s a real grudge match, just like the Lions-Bears game. Today was a letdown, no one had to go to the hospital or be arraigned. Wimps.

[bunkerhill7]

When the Raiders played on the old Frank Youell Field near the Estuary, when they would score a TD we would hand them a beer in the end zone coz it was just like a high school field. By the second half they were all half drunk. They usually won coz they were so loose.

Raider Nation was born from Suds.

[SunkenCiv]

Someone from my hometown, who was living with his girlfriend in the Marina neighborhood, was sitting in the middle of their efficiency, talking to her, when it hit. All the cabinets fell off the wall, the building lurched and shook, their dishes broke, and I think they had to move out. A lot of that area is landfill. :’)

[Mike Darancette]

Good karma; the Raiders actually won.

[Riley]

There are efficiencies in the Marina District??! What do they go for these days, $3k? Love the Marina District. My late father passed there- it’s woven into my life. There, and the Richmond District. Mostly Marin, though.

[SunkenCiv]

I never saw it, but that’s how I heard it. Perhaps it was some sort of boarding house arrangement, room for rent.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

And the Chargers beat the niners, more good karma:

Ugh! Colin Kaepernik of the 49ers yells out “Obama” at the line.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3239427/posts

[SunkenCiv]

And they’ve won three in a row now, how weird is that?

[nascarnation]

Obama, Omaha, next they’ll be yelling “Pyongyang” and “Un Hung Low”

[DoughtyOne]

There are more good people out there than we know about.

We sometimes focus on the wrong because it needs to be corrected, and let the good things slip by because they don’t.

Kudos to Watson. Definite classy move...

[KC Burke]

Raiders vs Chiefs was true war in the 60s and 70s. Maybe less so now except for the old timers like me. The current players seem to enjoy going after Denver the most.