Posted on 01/09/2015 7:05:53 AM PST by NKP_Vet
Army Sgt. Ryan Patterson grew up a diehard Colts fan. Even living in Cincinnati, surrounded by Bengals lovers, he was loyal to his Colts and Peyton Manning. During his tours of duty to Afghanistan, he would stay up late to stream Colts games online. When Manning moved to the Broncos, he even tried to change his duty station to Colorado in order to be able to watch him play. Luckily for Patterson, his wife Kristen wrote his idol a letterand Manning decided to respond, in spectacular fashion. Kristen had forgotten to include her contact information, so Manning set about tracking the couple down. Making things more difficult, the Pattersons had just been relocated to Fort Wainwright
which is in Alaska. Kristen, in her letter, had requested a meeting with Manning for the Broncos-Bengals game on December 22, which they would be attending. First, Manning called the Broncos public relations department, and asked for help finding the couple. It took them three months, but they finally located them, thanks to a utility company in Alaska. They then called the Alaska State Troopers, who called Kristen asking if she had written a letter to Peyton Manning. Kristen tried to keep the meeting a surprise from her husband, but when they arrived at the Broncos team hotel, the secret was out. The lobby was full of fans, and Sgt. Patterson assumed he was going to have the opportunity to take a quick photo and get an autograph. Instead, the couple was whisked up to a private conference room, where Manning arrived to meet them. I saw [Manning] come up the escalator and my first reaction was he is at least 15 feet tall, if not taller, Sgt. Patterson said. The couple took pictures with Manning and received an autographed football. The quarterback even played with their daughter, 10-month-old Olivia. Manning thanked Patterson for his service, and Patterson thanked Manning for being his quarterback. And now, Kristen gets to forever revel in her status as greatest wife ever. [Kristen] enjoyed the fact that she is the greatest wife ever and there was nothing I could ever do to top this, Patterson said. If you asked me who is the one person, anybody in the world, I want to meet, I would immediately say Peyton Manning and she made that happen.
Very classy . . . which is why I root for the Manning brothers even when they play our Pittsburgh Steelers.
I don’t follow football, but this guy is classy. Yay for what he did, yay for the wife, & yay for the soldier.
YUP.
I remember Archie playing at Ole Miss.
That’s two class acts, Kristen Patterson and Peyton Manning.
I think that’s awesome and Peyton is definitely a class act. He knows his status and he uses his powers for good, not evil... But, with that said, he still needs to get off my TV!
Sheesh, EVERYTIME I TURN THE BLASTED THING ON, THERE HE IS!!!
Buick... Papa John’s... Nationwide... Losing feeling in my toes....
AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!
OMAHA!
BIG yes, and Peyton was not dress in “I can’t breathe” !!!
Tough read without paragraph markers.
Good thing it is a short article.
Army Sgt. Ryan Patterson grew up a diehard Colts fan. Even living in Cincinnati, surrounded by Bengals lovers, he was loyal to his Colts and Peyton Manning. During his tours of duty to Afghanistan, he would stay up late to stream Colts games online. When Manning moved to the Broncos, he even tried to change his duty station to Colorado in order to be able to watch him play.
Luckily for Patterson, his wife Kristen wrote his idol a letterand Manning decided to respond, in spectacular fashion.
Kristen had forgotten to include her contact information, so Manning set about tracking the couple down. Making things more difficult, the Patterson’s had just been relocated to Fort Wainwright which is in Alaska. Kristen, in her letter, had requested a meeting with Manning for the Broncos-Bengals game on December 22, which they would be attending.
First, Manning called the Broncos public relations department, and asked for help finding the couple. It took them three months, but they finally located them, thanks to a utility company in Alaska. They then called the Alaska State Troopers, who called Kristen asking if she had written a letter to Peyton Manning. Kristen tried to keep the meeting a surprise from her husband, but when they arrived at the Broncos team hotel, the secret was out. The lobby was full of fans, and Sgt. Patterson assumed he was going to have the opportunity to take a quick photo and get an autograph.
Instead, the couple was whisked up to a private conference room, where Manning arrived to meet them. I saw [Manning] come up the escalator and my first reaction was he is at least 15 feet tall, if not taller, Sgt. Patterson said.
The couple took pictures with Manning and received an autographed football. The quarterback even played with their daughter, 10-month-old Olivia.
Manning thanked Patterson for his service, and Patterson thanked Manning for being his quarterback. And now, Kristen gets to forever revel in her status as greatest wife ever. [Kristen] enjoyed the fact that she is the greatest wife ever and there was nothing I could ever do to top this, Patterson said. If you asked me who is the one person, anybody in the world, I want to meet, I would immediately say Peyton Manning and she made that happen.
Thank you for posting such a Happy Story. These days, they are much needed.
Point well taken ;-)
Actual source: Quote Investigator found the earliest known appearance in a 1993 Washington Times essay by Richard Grenier: “As George Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” The absence of quotation marks indicates that Grenier was using his own words to convey his interpretation of Orwell’s opinion, as seen in citations below.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations
Don’t mean to be a jerk. thought this might interest you ...
Class Act, just like Dad.
LOL! Just glad we won’t have to see Kaepernick in this playoffs, and hear him yell “Obama” at the line of scrimmage.
Peyton has always been a class act. His philanthropy in Indiana is legend, including a Childrens Hospital wing at St. Vincents in Indianapolis.
“Peyton has always been a class act”.
And when he loses he addresses the media and takes full responsibility for the loss. He usually says “I have to play better”. He will also always give credit for the team that beat his team. Then take blame for the loss.
His remarks have always reminded me of Dean Smith when he was the coach at UNC for 36 years. After a loss Smith would say “I didn’t prepare the players to play the game, the loss is my fault”. He would then give credit to the other team. Compare that to Roy Williams who will raise hell and blame other players by name if he thought they were not playing hard enough.
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