It’s almost time for the big game!
Although my favorite team, the Cincinnati Bengals, won’t be playing, I’ll still be watching. I’m mainly excited because the very talented and oh so fine Usher will be headlining the halftime show. I’ll be jamming out in front of the tv when he comes on for sure.
As I always say, disabilities affect all in some way or another. With this, I set out to find how they impacted this year’s big game and boy did I find a good story.
Do you know Porter Ellet? If not, don’t feel bad because before now neither did I, but I do now!
Porter is the assistant running back coach for the Kanas City Chiefs and he also has one arm.
Porter lost the use of his right arm because of an accident at the age of four, so the decision was made by him to just have it surgically removed at age sixteen. By then, he had already learned how to adapt to his disability and the limb was just in the way.
I personally think it’s easier to adapt to a disability when you’re born with it then if it is acquired at a very young age. I learned most things when I was young. I did things for myself to make sure things happened because I wanted and needed to do things on my own. I have had to tweak them as I’ve aged, but I keep making things happen no matter what stage of life I am in.
To be honest, that is what we all do, tweaking things to make them work for us. If you’re not tweaking things to make your independence work for you, just keep living because you will.
Although Porter had no arm, he never let that stop him from achieving. He played sports growing up. Porter excelled at basketball, baseball, and football. He was also great at working on his family’s farm where there were no excuses given by his parents due to him not having an arm.
With his determination, Porter had the confidence to apply for the assistant running back coach with the chiefs. His resume spoke for itself and Porter was offered the job. Now he’s going into his seventh season with the chiefs.
I set out to find a story on how the big game and disabilities come together. No matter what it is in life, disabilities will pop up. People with disabilities are a part of everyday life. It makes me happy knowing the Kansas City Chief’s management focused on Porter’s abilities instead of his disabilities.
https://magazine.byu.edu/article/left-hand-man/
I’m hopeful next week’s game will be a good one and I want to know, who y’all got? I got, Usher, Usher, Usher!