Six-year-old Asher Harvey was born with a heart anomaly that will eventually require a heart transplant, but right now, he’s celebrating his NFL dreams coming true.
“So many of these kids, all they know about whatever their medical condition is, is sad and heavy and frustrating and lonely,” Asher’s mom, Ashley, said in an interview with the Panthers. “Asher, he loves to run, but he just can’t run like everybody else. He would love to play football, but as he grows, his ability to keep up with his peers is just not going to be there.”
Harvey had one wish: to play for an NFL team. And the Carolina Panthers made that dream come true on Thursday, July 31, when they signed him to a one-day contract.
“…to be able to have this thing be a part of his memory, and we get to do it because his heart is special, it’s different than everybody else’s, but because of that, we get to have this experience,” his mom said of the experience.
Some of his biggest heroes — quarterbacks Bryce Young and Kenny Pickett — welcomed him right in as they and coach Will Harriger made a plan for him to quarterback the final play of the game. Harvey was unsure at first, but Young assured him, “We’ll get through it together.”
After the quarterbacks’ meeting, the 6-year-old was escorted to the locker room where he got his jersey, helmet and gloves. Harvey even got to lead the team out of the tunnel and onto the field.
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“Asher has taught me that it doesn’t matter what happens to you,” Ashley said of her son. “It doesn’t matter the things that other people may look at you and think are restrictions or hardships. What matters is how you move through life because that kid is unstoppable, and I don’t know what he’ll end up doing, but whatever he does, he does it with all of who he is.”
“Whatever that happens to look like, he doesn’t let his physical limitations hold him back, and he asks questions, and he wants to know things, and what that has taught me is that really, it’s the mindset that you carry that impacts the way that something affects you for the long term,” she continued.
In the last two minutes of the Fan Fest game, Harvey hopped off the bench and made his way to the sideline to get the crowd excited and to learn from Jonathan Brooks and Chubba Hubbard on how to take a handoff.
When it came time for the play, he lined up on Young’s left. The ball was snapped, and it was time for the young athlete to run wide open for the touchdown.
Once Harvey got the ball, he never looked back.
@clture Six-year-old Make-A-Wish recipient Asher Harvey signed a one-day contract with the Panthers and ran for a touchdown on the final play of Fan Fest. #Panthers #KeepPounding #CLT #Charlotte #NFL
“It was an automatic touchdown,” head coach Dave Canales said in his post-practice press conference. “They couldn’t touch him, so he walked it in there, and it was a really special moment after a really nice drive by Kenny and the group.”
For one unforgettable day, Harvey didn’t just live out his dream of playing in the NFL — he showed everyone around him what it looks like to run through life at full speed, no matter what obstacles stand in the way.
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