Detroit Lions defenseman Aidan Hutchinson knocked on Jacob Rinehart’s front door.
“Come in!” his stepmother Audrey Cox shouted from the nearby kitchen.
Hutchinson entered the suburban Detroit home using crutches to protect his surgically repaired left leg, which was broken in two places last month.
“What’s up, guys?” Hutchinson asked, grinning. “How are we doing?”
The wide-eyed and awestruck Rinehart was simply stunned.
“I’m sitting here and Aidan Hutchinson comes in,” he said later that evening. “And I almost dropped dead.”
Carlos Osorio / AP
The Marine, who was told he would not be able to walk again after a training accident, believed there were more than a dozen visitors and several cameras and lights set up in his family’s home because they were doing something related to the work of his stepmother.
Not quite.
Cox shared her stepson’s story with the Lions via the team’s website, without expecting a response.
The Lions read what she wrote and contacted Verizon, a corporate sponsor of the NFL, about Rinehart. The team and the wireless carrier have organized a series of surprises for him as part of Verizon Access, which creates opportunities for behind-the-scenes experiences at events such as NFL games.
Hutchinson drove about an hour to present Rinehart with four tickets to Detroit’s home game against Chicago on Thanksgiving, one of his autographed No. 97 jerseys and an Amon-Ra St. Brown No. 14 jersey.
During Hutchinson’s visit, Brown connected with Rinehart via FaceTime. He invited Rinehart to choose the celebration he wanted to see when the All-Pro receiver scored against the Bears.
“That’s probably the coolest thing that’s happened to me in, I don’t know, 20 years, and I’ve only been alive for 20 years,” he said.
It seemed to be meaningful for Hutchinson as well.
He has regularly visited young patients in hospitals and has a special appreciation for the military because his great-grandfather was part of the World War II jungle fighting unit known as “Merrill’s Marauders.”
“It’s inspiring for everyone to see what these kids are going through and how they’ve persevered,” said Hutchinson, wearing a hoodie with UNBROKEN print on his chest and Air Jordan sneakers. “And it puts life into perspective.”
A camera crew was on hand to document the waves of surprises for Verizon and produce content for social media posts and a two-minute video that fans in the stands will see before next Thursday night’s home game against Green Bay.
Rinehart watched warmups from the sidelines Thursday morning at Ford Field in Detroit, where team owner Sheila Ford Hamp told him he had two tickets to the Super Bowl and St. Brown stopped by to sign his jersey.
“He said, ‘What’s wrong?’ and asked me if I had a TD cell for him,” Rinehart said. “I told him to say hello, and he said he would.”
Rinehart was on the field when the Lions were introduced just before kickoff, adding to his surreal experience.
When Rinehart went to watch the game, twenty family members and friends were waiting for him in a suite.
Carlos Osorio / AP
“I think it was a bigger surprise than I thought,” he said.
Rinehart was ready for a feel-good month.
In the fall of 2023, he was more than two months into training in South Carolina and a week away from the Marine’s grueling effort known as “The Crucible,” completing a 13-week course, when an accident left him with a spinal cord injury incurred. paralyzed him from the neck down.
“They told me I would never walk again,” he recalls.
Rinehart was able to walk with assistance for a few months after a four-month hospital stay. After more than a year of rehabilitation in Michigan, he can walk independently again, as early-arriving fans saw at Ford Field on Thanksgiving.
“I really feel like I’m going to wake up and it’s all going to be a dream,” Cox said. “I can’t believe this little entry I submitted sparked this giant rollercoaster we’re on now.”
