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Eli Griffith sat in a green room in the bowels of the Javits Center in Manhattan on the first day of Fanatics Fest waiting anxiously alongside his family.
The Griffith family – father Joe, mother Jamie, and sister Ava – had been waiting all day for Eli to meet his favorite athlete, the one whose name rested atop their Michigan Wolverines and New England Patriots jerseys.
Tom Brady.
Fox News Digital was able to speak with Eli and his family prior to meeting Brady as part of Fanatics and Make-A-Wish’s partnership, which continues to deliver once-in-a-lifetime moments. Eli was “totally” nervous after being asked about meeting his idol, but he also felt like there is a “mutual connection” due to their roots in Ann Arbor, Michigan – where Brady’s stardom rose with the Wolverines before reaching the “G.O.A.T” status Eli pointed out in the NFL.
“As the day has been going, it’s just more and more surreal. It’s like this is the time it’s happening, and I just imagine him walking in the door,” Eli said.
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The moment finally came where Brady opened that door, and the family shared the quality time together they’ve been looking forward to all day.
Brady caught up with Fox News Digital after the meeting, where Eli, who’s already showing his journalist chops in high school, had some questions to ask the legendary quarterback.
“He didn’t want to be a journalist. He said, ‘I am a journalist!’ I said, ‘Absolutely, you keep going,’” Brady said, smiling. “He had seven questions for me, and a lot of fun ones. He definitely put a lot of time and thought into it, and he asked a lot of good questions. A few of them I’ve never been asked before.”
A candid interview, some autographs, and having a catch with the whole family, Brady made Eli’s wish come true in the best way. But the Griffith family should know that Eli’s story serves as inspiration for Brady as well.
“When I was a player, we did a lot of it around football training camp and we had a lot of great wishes over the years,” Brady explained. “Just love being able to impact people’s lives in a positive way. A lot of these people are dealt with challenging situations – families and kids. But they have the brightest spirts and the biggest hearts, and it’s just amazing to meet them, draw inspiration. They think they’re drawing inspiration from us – I think it actually goes the other way.”
At 14, Eli was diagnosed with an unusual heart condition. He had a dilated cardiomyopathy on one side of his heart, and ventricular non-compaction on the other side. It was a rare genetic mutation that went undetected until he was a teenager.
As a result, Eli needed a heart transplant at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.
During his time in the hospital, Brady was shown a picture of Eli with a bunch of trading cards from his Michigan days spread across his chest, which Brady called “pretty awesome.”
And while Brady was an inspiration, so was the entire Wolverines football team as Eli and his family battled through their situation.
“The Michigan football team actually stepped up a lot when he was in the hospital. Players came and visited him,” Joe Griffith said. “Charles Woodson gave a shoutout. We had a connection somehow through Jim Harbaugh, and we got a phone message from Harbaugh as well as the punter from the Chargers [JK Scott]. In the [Michigan] locker room, the players did a little voice message to Eli. All of this, kept his spirits high. Kept us excited about things, like after he had surgery, these three freshmen were going to come from the team and visit him afterwards. The whole thing had a lot of ups and downs, but relative to experiences a lot of people have, our lows were not as low as they could’ve been.”
It was the ultimate high for the Griffith family as they spent time with Brady, but it only continued on the Fanatics Fest floor after their introduction. Eli was right next to Brady tossing out trading card packs at CardVault by Tom Brady, while they all had a front-row seat to Brady dunking one of his favorite teammates of all-time, Rob Gronkowski, in a dunk tank filled with Raising Cane’s sauce.
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The experience of a lifetime for a family that has been through struggle, but never wavered in spirit and hope.
“There’s a lot of people digging deep in life, and we all face our own unique challenges and he’s a great kid. What a great spirit,” Brady said.
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