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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 letter—and 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.”