While I obviously can’t speak for everyone, I’ve always found that it matters a great deal when our moms see us do what we’re passionate about.
In my case, I’m grateful to say that my mother came to every performance of every play I was in as a kid. And while that level of support was staggering on its own, it bordered on unbelievable when I was in something called The Disney Spectacular , which I didn’t even think was worth seeing once.
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But even though I didn’t have any interest in sports growing up, I did find some familiar feelings arise in the full video. For one NFL player, knowing that his mom was watching him achieve something means just as much now as it did when he was growing up.
Although Jerome Baker of the Miami Dolphins had his head in the game on November 3, it was clear that this wasn’t the only thing on his mind.
As The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported , Baker had reserved a ticket for his mother, Theodora, and was worried that she wouldn’t make it to the game.
She had flown from Cleveland to spend the weekend with him and had been preparing a home-cooked meal for him earlier that day.
As Baker told The Sun Sentinel , “My mom, she’s older, she’s about to retire. So I figured she cooked. She got tired. ‘Oh, I’ll just watch the game at home.’ And I don’t ever get mad at her for that. But this one, we’re winning. I hoped she was here.”
As the game progresses, one of Baker’s teammates can’t help but notice his agitation and checks up on him.
To this, Baker unabashedly replies that he’s looking for his mom and had trouble seeing her.
Part of his frustration came from the fact that he briefly spotted his cousin, but lost him in the stands after the team’s defensive coordinator yelled instructions.
Part of his frustration came from the fact that he briefly spotted his cousin in the stands.
However, Baker lost sight of him after the team’s defensive coordinator yelled instructions.
Although Baker was obviously preoccupied, that didn’t mean his game suffered any.
In the full video, we can see him charge into a receiver and roll him over before a pass can be completed.
He later takes a dominant position over a member of the opposing team at the scrimmage line.
Ever the considerate one, he shouts “He’s squirming, he’s alive” as he gets up from off the player.
Still, his search continued throughout most of the game.
As he said, “So I’m looking, looking the whole game. I tried to count up [the rows], but there were too many people. So I looked again, I couldn’t find her. I couldn’t find her.”
In one amusing part, Baker is shown sitting on the bench and singing his team’s fight song.
However, he doesn’t get far into it before once again wondering where his mom is.
Finally, Baker was able to get a visual on his mom in the fourth quarter of the game.
He said, “I was so close so I could see peoples’ faces. So when I found her, she was waving at me, and I waved back. I finally found her. Everything worked out.”
But once he found her, Jerome come away with a feeling we often experience when we’re fixated on searching for someone.
He ended up thinking she should have been easy to spot because she was wearing a large orange shirt that stood out.
Baker has since seen the video of his search and said it had him “dying laughing.”
He also said that he forgot he was wearing a microphone during the game and lost count of how many times he asked where his mom was.
As he said, “It was just funny. You don’t realize how many times I was saying it, but I was saying it so much. The video made it funnier.”
And now, you can see the wholesome chapter unfold for yourself.
