Matt Bryant - An Inspiration To Us All
by: Staff | Views: 1,681
Many of you may not have heard about the courage it took Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Matt Bryant to play in yesterdays game, but he is an inspiration to us all. On Wednesday Matt and Melissa Bryant lost their 3 month old son, Matthew Tryson Bryant. All we know at this time is that while waking up their other 5 children Wednesday morning, Melissa went to wake Tryson and found him not breathing. It will be weeks before anything further is known.
Services were held in Texas on Saturday and Matt flew back to Tampa late Saturday night for Sunday’s game. Through out the game you could see Bryant lift his hand to the sky after a kick, clearly acknowledging his son and letting him know this one’s for you.
The mental and emotional strength it took to go out on that field is unbelievable. To anyone with children you can only imagine the emotions going on in his mind and teammate, Center Jeff Faine could understand why Bryant played. “I think it just helped keep his mind busy for a minute or two.”
Maybe so, but the 30-21 victory over Green Bay was not important to Matt, he simply wanted his boy to see him play and do a good job. “I didn’t want to have a bad game today,” Bryant said. “I wanted to be focused to lift Tryson up, to put him in the spotlight. I was going to go 3-for-3 today. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to let anything screw up the day when I had the opportunity to acknowledge him again.”
Well Matt, you did it! Tryson would be proud.
Editors Note: If you would like to express your sympathy and support Matt & Melissa Bryant, the family has asked that in lieu of flowers donations be made in Tryson’s name to The March of Dimes. 405 N Reo St., Suite 105, Tampa, FL 33609. For more information, call (813) 287-2600.
