All In The Family
Originally published at jasonackerman.com. You can comment here or there.
How funny is it that one of the best family pictures we’ve taken recently (ie, everyone smiling, looking at the camera, no drama) was taken at an autograph signing with Matt Duchene (center for the Colorado Avalanche). He fits well into our family. Now he just needs to start pulling his weight around here.
For the record, Matt was really great. We heard about the event just a couple miles from our house 15 minutes after it started. So we grabbed our stuff and drove down quickly, waited in line in the cold. The event was supposed to end at 6pm, and he agreed to stay and sign for everyone who was in line by 6pm. He could have left at 6, many athletes over-value their time in this way. But he stayed, he was happy, gracious, and polite. He shook hands with Sam and me, and as I thanked him for doing this, he said “No problem”, in a tone of voice that almost sounded incredulous that I was thanking him.
He left a great impression - and we’re now bigger fans than ever. You never know if the pro athlete is going to break a kid’s heart by being rude. Sam was very excited to meet him (as was I), and a little part of me worried that he’d come away disillusioned. Instead, we walked away with signed hats (and my Duchene home jersey!) and a few copies of the above photo - but mostly we walked away with smiles that this kid (yeah, he’s only 20) might be a millionaire pro athlete - but his home is in Colorado and we get to cheer him on.