A few years ago, when Derrick Coleman was the fullback with the Seattle Seahawks, he did a commercial for Duracell batteries.
Derrick grew up deaf since the age of 3, and had to wear hearing aides when he was a youngster. He was bullied and picked-on in school. He was the one who was also chosen last in team play. But he never let that get him down. And he didn’t let it hold him back even when others said he wasn’t going to make it in football …because of his deafness. He rose above and proved all of them wrong, and became a great player.
The commercial showed his toughness and overcoming obstacles. And it made quite an impression on 7-year-old twins, Riley and Erin Kovalcik, both of whom are hearing-impaired.
So Riley wrote to the football star, and her father Jake relayed it through a Tweet. The letter read: “I know how you feel. I also have hearing aids. Just try your best. I have faif [sic] in you, Derrick. Good job on January 20th game. Go Seattle Seahawks!”
Said the girls’ father Jake: “There’s not a whole lot of really high-profile people or even athletes out there that are deaf that kids like Riley and Erin can look up to…that show that if you work hard, adversity really doesn’t matter.”
We are sure you enjoyed the above story… watch for more: https://youtu.be/1ENum1Sy9VA?t=222
