After the young fan lost his signed football at the Seahawks Super Bowl parade, a JBLM sergeant surprised him with a special replacement.<\/p>\n
SEATTLE \u2014 What was supposed to be one of the happiest days of an 8-year-old Seahawks fan\u2019s life ended in tears after he lost a football signed during Wednesday\u2019s Super Bowl victory parade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Days later, the story has taken a turn, one fueled by the same community spirit that filled downtown Seattle.<\/p>\n
Antonio Rodrigues Jr., 8, attended the parade with his father and his brother. The family arrived early and spent the day walking more than 11 miles through the city as hundreds of thousands of fans gathered to celebrate the Seahawks\u2019 championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a beautiful day,\u201d said Antonio Rodrigues Sr, the boy’s father.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Antonio Jr. had one goal: get as many player signatures as possible on his football. At first, the plan worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat ball was very, very meaningful to me, because it had three signatures, almost four,\u201d Antonio Jr. said.<\/p>\n
According to the family, the ball was tossed between fans and players along the parade route and signed by multiple Seahawks, including quarterback Sam Darnold. But during one exchange, the ball was dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen someone else threw it. They collided, mine dropped, and security picked it up, and they gave it to the wrong person,\u201d Antonio Jr. said.<\/p>\n
The family believes someone may have picked up the football thinking they had gotten lucky with a signed souvenir.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think somebody just picked it up and thought that they won the lottery because they got some signatures,\u201d Rodrigues Sr. said. \u201cAnd maybe we can get it back to this little guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antonio Jr. insists it was no one\u2019s fault. He simply wants the football returned.<\/p>\n
In the days that followed, Antonio Jr.\u2019s mother posted about the lost ball on Facebook. The post quickly gained traction, spreading widely among Seahawks fans who began sharing the story in hopes of tracking it down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe figured that if we reach out to the community, and the 12s are so close, that maybe we can get it back and lock that memory in for him,\u201d his father said.<\/p>\n
Even without the football, the family says the experience of being part of the championship celebration remains unforgettable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe energy was crazy. Everybody was happy,\u201d Rodrigues Sr. said. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like a feeling that you never get that many people and nobody angry. Everybody all smiles. It was something special.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the original ball has not been recovered, the viral post sparked another outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
First Sgt. Steven Cracraft, who is stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord with the 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade, saw the family\u2019s story online and decided to help.<\/p>\n
Cracraft surprised Antonio Jr. with a new football signed by several Seahawks players and presented him with a jersey signed by wide receiver DK Metcalf.<\/p>\n
What began as a heartbreaking loss in a sea of blue and green has become a different kind of memory \u2014 one defined not just by a championship parade, but by a community stepping in for one of its youngest fans.<\/p>\n
For Antonio Jr. and his father, the Seahawks are still Super Bowl champions. And now, the story of a lost football has become part of that celebration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the young fan lost his signed football at the Seahawks Super Bowl parade, a JBLM sergeant surprised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-479148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}