A Touchdown to Remember

(YouTube link)

Last Friday, the Snohomish Panthers were losing a home football game to the Lake Stevens Vikings. It would have been a game to forget until they put in 17-year-old Ike Ditzenberger, who has Down syndrome. Ike ran the ball 51 yards to score the team's only touchdown in the game. Link -via Buzzfeed

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The comments posted are very interesting.
I feel both a warmth knowing that teenagers from opposing teams allowed a young man with down's score a touchdown. I also agree that it comes dangerously close to being patronizing.
I do think having it as a news item IS wrong. Let this be a private moment for Ike to remember. Not something to display to the world. I bet all Ike would like is to be "like any normal guy his age" and this does exactly the opposite. It is one step short of being a carnival side-show.
"Step right up. See the down's boy score a touchdown. Step right up."

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People with Downs are amazingly sweet and physically strong beyond our quotidian comprehension. This made me cry with joy. Every single football player, on both teams, wanted him to score. It was one of the best expressions of the best of us as humans I've seen in a while.

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Patronising? I don't think so. I bet he loved it.

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@Church

Guilt is a very powerful weapon, but Ike deserves his 15 minutes of fame.