Derrick Coleman, the Seattle Seahawks fullback who gained viral fame after being featured in a Duracell ad about his struggles growing up deaf, apparently takes being an inspiration very seriously.
He recently made Riley Kovalcik and her twin sister, Erin, extremely happy fans when he surprised them while they were on the air during a Good Morning America segment and invited them to the Super Bowl, all in appreciation for them taking faith in the message of his ad.
Riley and Erin are both hearing-impaired, like Coleman, and were incredibly moved and motivated by his amazing ad about conquering the odds and being a successful football player, despite his deafness. When his team won against the San Francisco 49ers and officially made it into the Super Bowl, Riley wrote a letter telling the star how much his accomplishments meant to her and listing things they had in common (like hearing aids). The 9-year-old twins’ father tweeted out the letter, and that, too, went viral in a matter of hours.
Coleman responded to the letter, telling the girls it "was great hearing from a friend who I have so much in common with … Even though we wear hearing aids, we can still accomplish our goals and dreams," which was an adorable gesture in and of itself.
But Coleman took it one step further, according to ABC News.
It started when the interviewer asked the girls what they would do if they were ever to meet him.
"I would probably just run past the security guards, under their legs, right past the security guards … [and] jump on top of him," Riley said.
At around that moment, Coleman sneaked around behind the girls, who were rendered starstruck. Riley was so surprised, she couldn’t even get up from her seat.
"Oh, my gosh, are you really?" her equally amazed twin, Erin, asked the smiling star.
The icing on the cake was the set of Super Bowl tickets he pulled out, extending an invitation to the twins and their family.
"On behalf of Duracell, we want to invite you guys to the Super Bowl," he told them. "You and your little brother, your dad, your mom … come watch us play."
After the initial shock, they got up to give their own superhero a hug.
Read more at Yahoo News.