My Wish: DeSean Jackson

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DeSean Jackson, ESPN, Make A Wish Foundation, NFL, Philadelphia Eagles

My Wish: DeSean Jackson  by Ken White, ESPN

My Wish and DeSean Jackson grant Donovan Troy’s wish of spending time with his favorite NFL player.

Nothing, not even an unexpected rainstorm, could ruin Donovan Troy’s wish. In fact, the weather made Donovan’s day even better.

Troy, a 10-year-old from Atlanta, spent the rainy day inside the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice bubble with his idol, DeSean Jackson.

“Because it rained that day, everybody was in one place, so he really got to meet a lot of players,” said Donovan’s mother, Tara Troy. “He even got a chance to learn how to take punt returns and kick with the kickers.”

One month after he was born, Donovan was diagnosed with a life-threatening form of sickle-cell anemia.

Donovan had to avoid situations that could exacerbate his condition, such as being outside in extreme heat, or even swimming. Football specifically was discouraged, especially after Donovan’s spleen was removed when he was a toddler. He now needs monthly blood transfusions. Contact sports could create serious complications.

Donovan’s uncle, Cedric, was 32 when he died from the same condition. But Donovan loved football, and while his parents wanted to protect him, they also didn’t want him spending his whole life in hospitals.

Donovan Troy was diagnosed with a life-threatening form of sickle cell anemia when he was a month old.

When he was 5 years old, Donovan played football for the first time, on a team coached by his father, Al. Donovan played a little bit of quarterback and had some success, but for his health, he took the next two years off. At age 8, he scored his first touchdown, though he was decidedly low-key about it.

“He scored and handed the ball to the referee and walked right back to the huddle,” Tara said. “I was surprised. He wasn’t quite into the dancing yet.”

Now, whenever Donovan gets a chance, he imitates Jackson’s touchdown dance. How the youngster from Atlanta became a fan of the fifth-year wide receiver from Philadelphia remains a mystery to his family.

“My husband and I were born and raised in Atlanta; so, we’re both natives, but he is not a Falcons fan at all,” Tara said. “He loves DeSean. He always talks about how fast he is.”

At the end of May, his parents set up Donovan with a special highlight video in his normal playlist.  After a clip of Jackson’s season highlights finished, Jackson popped on the screen to deliver a personal invitation to Donovan. At first, Donovan didn’t believe he was really going to Philadelphia, and kept replaying the video. And then it finally sunk in — Donovan would get to meet the man he had idolized for so long.

Two weeks later, Donovan and his family were off to Philadelphia, where he met Jackson. Donovan shared Jackson’s locker and received his own customized jersey, which he took onto the practice field.

DeSean Jackson showed Donovan some of his best dance moves.

“He got to dance with DeSean Jackson, so he loved that,” Tara said. “He got to field punts. And they filmed him doing that and went in the film room, after, to watch it on the big-screen TV and had his name on [the film] and everything. So that made him feel special, as if he was really part of the team.”

Of course, no practice for Jackson would be complete without getting some work in with his quarterback, and that was the case for Donovan, too. After a little one-on-one coaching from Jackson on running routes, Donovan caught passes from Eagles quarterback Michael Vick.

“Once [Jackson] showed him how to run routes, he got to catch passes and didn’t drop one the whole time. That was really cool for him,” Tara said.

After the film session, the day at practice was nearly over, but there was still one last surprise in store. Jackson, an avid rapper who has his own label — Jaccpot Records — brought Donovan to a recording studio and had the youngster lay down a verse for an Eagles rap.

“[Donovan] really was excited about that,” Tara said. “We didn’t even know DeSean was into music like that. He and DeSean went into the studio and recorded a song and they gave us the CD before we left. He’ll always have that to remember.”

Back at home, Donovan plays the song every day, and it’s his mother’s ringtone. Donovan now plays baseball instead of football because it’s safer, but he’s still dancing. Only now, he’s doing it to his own beat.

Putting An End to Harassment, Beyond the Billboards

Monday, 23 July 2012 11:14 | Written by Sheila Simmons |

Putting an end to harassment, beyond the billboards

The billboard over I-95 South just before Lincoln Financial Field shows Eagles star DeSean Jackson with Upper Darby bullying victim Nadin Khoury.  It reminds me of the most effective defense against bullying: us.

(Left) Nadin Khoury, 15 with his mother Rebecca at home in Upper Darby. Nadin was the victim of a bullying incident last year and has become a spokesperson for anti-bullying campaigns. Sarah J. Glover/Photographer

By us I mean members of society, the spectators in the stands.

On the billboard, alongside the words “End Bullying Zone” our favorite wide receiver uses his celebrity to cast anti-bullying as popular, socially desirable goal.

In a 2010 article, the American Academy of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry concluded that today’s bullies don’t just pummel kids for lunch money–they are often “popular or semi-popular social climbers . . . who use ostracism, ridicule, and gossip to gain social status.”

Think about it. If others (read: we) don’t stand around and watch the bully, laugh at insults, or chant, “fight, fight, fight!” then the bully has no audience, and thus, no act.

Summer break doesn’t stop bullying.  It happens on the playground, at the pool, on the block. Adults encounter bullies in the workplace, the boardroom,–heck, in the state legislature.

The bully in my neighborhood is a big, muscular kid 13 year old. I once watched him peddle around my son’s ball field on some other kid’s bike that he’d “borrowed”.  On day, a group of smaller kids asked the bully, “You gonna beat him up again?”

The “him” was my neighbor’s kid who sat silently against a fence. As the bully and kids approached, I did too, aiming a disapproving “Mom” look at the bully and his curious followers, who were drawn by anticipation. After several glances at me, they all slinked away.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to Jackson or the folks behind his DeSean Jackson Foundation, headed by mom Gayle Jackson (she was away at the Professional Football Players Mothers’ Association’s 15^th annual Pre-Season Conference). But I did talk to Nadin.  Life has changed a lot since last year, when a group of bullies put him in a tree and recorded it.

He credits some of that change to a new school and some to his association with Jackson, who at the time surprised him on national television with an Eagles jersey.  “He bought me and my sister and Mom a plane ticket to the [ESPY] Awards. We got to meet a whole bunch of famous people. [Locals] would come up to me and say, ‘Aren’t you that kid . . . ?’

DeSean Jackson and Nadin on the Red Carpet at the Espy Awards

“Now, a lot of people know that people care. . . . I’ve heard recently that Lady Gaga is part of a [an anti-bullying] campaign, that Obama has a bunch of things,” he added. “They all think that it’s something that should not be tolerated, that people know it’s not cool that you’re saying this.”

Yes, someone cares, Nadin. And that someone should be all of us.

For more information on the DeSean Jackson Foundation, go to Foundation10.com or E-Mail Mrs. Gayle Jackson @ deseanjacksonfoundationceo@yahoo.com.  Thank You.