Dolphins My Cause, My Cleats Stories
Miami Dolphins rookie Brandon Jones' special relationship with a young cancer patient in Texas came to light around draft time, and it's worth discussing again with the NFL's My Cause, My Cleats initiative starting this weekend.
Jones explained Friday that he'll be wearing cleats designed by Soles By Sir to bring attention to osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that typically affects children and young adults.
Jones then described his relationship with Jayden Morton, who he met at Dell Children's Hospital in Austin during his time at the University of Texas.
"He suffers from that cancer and overall, I just wanted to be able to represent not only him, but it’s a cancer that only kind of shows in kids that range from ages 10-20, so they’re younger than me obviously, and I’ve got younger brothers," Jones said. "So I always put Jayden, for example, in my brothers’ shoes and I just couldn’t imagine how hard life at that age, how hard life could be with having to deal with that stuff. I’m representing for him and everybody else — all the other kids — that suffer with osteosarcoma and I’m actually going to wear them during pregame.
"I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to wear them during the game because I’m going to give it to him for Christmas as a Christmas gift and I really don’t want to mess them up too bad, so we’ll just kind of see how the grass holds up and stuff during pregame.”
RELATED: Brandon Jones' Special Bond
A total of 35 Dolphins players will be taking part in the My Cause, My Cleat initiative.
Some of the causes are very personal for some players, such as fullback Chandler Cox, who will highlighting the Throat Cancer Foundation.
“I chose the Throat Cancer Foundation because I lost my father on May 13, 2020 from complications of throat cancer," Cox said. "I want to raise awareness for the people that suffer from it every day. I’ve seen how it affects someone and I want to do whatever I can to help this foundation out.”
RELATED: Cox's Emotional Goodbye to his Father
Rookie tackle Austin Jackson will be representing the Be The Match organization, which supports bone marrow donation.
Jackson, of course, donated bone marrow to his sister, who was suffering from a rare blood condition.
“I chose Be The Match because my sister was diagnosed with Diamond-Blackfan Anemia, a rare blood condition where the human body does not produce enough red blood cells for itself," Jackson said. "Before she received a bone marrow transplant, she received blood from donors every three weeks. If it wasn’t for people like myself and countless others who have donated blood marrow and blood, her condition would have only gotten worse the older she got. I encourage everyone to sign up and be a donor because there is definitely somebody in need!”
Here's the list of Dolphins players and the causes they will be representing:
RB Salvon Ahmed — 5000 Role Models
LB Jerome Baker — Expand The Land Foundation, Fuel Up to Play 60
FB Chandler Cox — Throat Cancer Foundation
G/T Jesse Davis — Team Never Quit Foundation
DT Raekwon Davis — Breonna Taylor - Say Her Name
OL Michael Deiter — Donate Life
LB Sam Eguavoen — Epilepsy Foundation
S Clayton Fejedelem — Pat Tillman Foundation
LS Blake Ferguson — Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
S Kavon Frazier — Frazier Cares Foundation
RB Myles Gaskin — Black Lives Matter, Behavioral Health Clinic at Seattle Children's Hospital
TE Mike Gesicki — Thon @ Penn State
WR Jakeem Grant — Austism Speaks
P Matt Haack — Dolphins Challenge Cancer
WR Mack Hollins — Keaton Franklin Coker Thumbs Up Mission
T Robert Hunt — Special Olympics
T Austin Jackson — Be The Match
S Brandon Jones — Sarcoma Foundation of America
CB Byron Jones — CJD Foundation
C Ted Karras — Dan Marino Foundation
G Solomon Kindley — Values Matter Miami (Miami Dade Schools)
RB Patrick Laird — More in Common
LB Calvin Munson — Chris Kyle Frog Foundation
CB Nik Needham — 88 Blessings
DE Emmanuel Ogbah — Prostate Cancer Foundation
T Adam Pankey — Boys & Girls Club
WR DeVante Parker — Starlight Children's Foundation
LB Elandon Roberts — American Heart Association
CB Eric Rowe — International Justice Mission
DT Zach Sieler — The Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida
TE Durham Smythe — Weish 4 Ever
QB Tua Tagovailoa — Tua Foundation
LB Andrew Van Ginkel — Operation Underground Railroad
LB Kyle Van Noy — Van Noy Valor Foundation
DT Christian Wilkins — Values Matter Miami (Miami Dade Schools)
