The NFL Draft isn’t just a monumental time for former college players eyeing the NFL gridiron. It can be just as meaningful for fans, too.
Just last week, 12-year-old Kamron Daniels and his 6-year-old brother, Damien Jr., lost their 38-year-old father, Damien Daniels Sr., to a brain aneurysm. The devastating medical emergency struck while he was coaching Damien’s youth football team.
The Dallas-area family already had tickets to attend the 2018 NFL Draft at AT&T Stadium, so the boys’ mother, Brandie, made the decision to carry on with their plans in order to enable her sons to feel close to their football-loving father.
“It means a lot to us, more than anybody can understand to be here today,” Brandie told WFAA.
Not only did they watch as players’ names were called one-by-one from the stage, but they took part in plenty of interactive football drills, testing themselves in the 40-yard dash and the vertical jump.
“Just think that daddy is racing with you,” Brandie told her sons as they were waiting their turn to test their speed.
While trivial to some, the NFL Draft experience quickly turned into a necessity for the Daniels Family.
“We eat, breathe and sleep football in our family, so this was really important to him,” Brandie said of her late husband. “So I’m here to make sure my boys can enjoy something he would’ve wanted them to do.”
The boys certainly enjoyed talking about their love of the Cowboys as well as analyzing what the team’s needs were for the upcoming season.
But, as players’ names and stats rolled though their brains, nothing was bigger than their love for their father, the brightest “star” in their lives.
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the Daniels Family to help with the cost of the funeral.
