The holidays may look a little different this year but that shouldn’t stop you from window shopping.
Way better than coal in your stocking,
The Last Night’s Game Team
1. Truly a gift from the heart. For years Peyton Manning wrote handwritten notes to athletes and sports figures who he admired. He spent his off-season writing to the people on this list, usually after they reached a milestone or retired. He would make note of the person’s respect for the game along with his notes of best wishes. AN INVALUABLE GIFT
2. Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (aka Mr. Ciara) gifted his linemen (the big guys on the line of scrimmage that protect him from the other team) each $12,000 in Amazon stock when he signed his new four-year/$140 million contract. Previously he gave his offensive linemen TVs and the entire team two-first class airline tickets. Let’s just hope they cashed them in before COVID. THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
3. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive line is a giving group who put a new spin on gift-giving. Instead of exchanging with each other, they pooled their money in order to give special bonuses for staff members who might get overlooked. These are the people that take care of them every day like the kitchen staff, trainers and the equipment team. THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS
4. Gifts with wheels are very popular. Dallas Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott gave his linemen John Deere UTVs and Tom Brady gifted his linemen new Audi A7s. Hall of Fame running back (and Dancing with the Stars winner) Emmitt Smith left a key to a new Hummer in each of his linemen's lockers. Smith had his teammates jumping up and down like little kids. Too bad they were actually for the remote-controlled version. NOW WE'RE TALKING
5. New York Giants’ Saquon Barkley feels the way so many of us do about gift-giving. Barkley admitted to NJ Advance Media, “I’m not really good with gifts. I gave them an option. I gave those guys a limit, I’m not going to tell you what the limit is, but I told them ‘just let me know what you guys want, and I’ll get it,’ and I told some of them that if they wanted me to donate towards a foundation or a charity of their choice, I’d do that, too.” CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
A bonus round the sweets lovers in your life. Quarterbacks Joe Flacco and Trevor Siemian have a sweet spot when it comes to their linemen. Flacco, who was a backup QB at the time, bought his linemen $2,000 slushie machines for the holidays one year, because why not? And now retired Siemian loved Skittles so he bought his linemen custom parkas that dispense Skittles. Yes, the fur-rim hooded parkas have a button on the chest that when pushed, Skittles arrive in a coat pocket. A DREAM COME TRUE
