Arizona Cardinals’ Jermaine Gresham offers further proof: It’s the little things that matter
It’s 2018 and Jermaine Gresham, a tight end for the Arizona Cardinals, is not on Twitter. The all-consuming social media platform churns with chaos, rumors and yes, news, 24 hours a day and Gresham manages to avoid it all.
He’s the lucky one!
While Gresham was living his full life outside of endless tweets, he missed all of the chatter over his thoughtful gesture that left one woman full of gratitude.
Witnessing a flustered passenger in line, there were a few options available to Gresham. He could have stewed silently. He could have scolded the passenger or the airline attendant for slowing everyone else down. He could have caused a stir in an already tense situation. He could have just ignored the entire scene, too.
But Gresham did none of the above. It was May 30 and it was beginning to look like Delilah Cassidy was about to miss her flight at the Los Angeles airport.
It seems Cassidy was told she’d have to pay for her carry-on bag. Rather than do that, she consolidated her belongings into her checked bag. But it was overweight and would cost $50. That’s something many travelers can relate to. But it got tricky when Cassidy was told she’d have to pay with a credit card instead of cash. Having just arrived from Europe, her bank was not notified that she was back in the United States from Europe and declined her card, she said.
That’s when Gresham stepped in.
When Cassidy saw Gresham on the flight, she tried to hand him the money in cash. He wouldn’t accept it, instead asking her to pay it forward.
“I was right there,” Gresham told Arizona reporters Tuesday. “I had my wallet in my pocket. I was like, ‘Here, just swipe my card. It’s $50. Catch the flight.’ There wasn’t much to it. … She thanked me maybe 20 times from the front to the seat. She was very respectful.”
How do we know about this story? Because Cassidy shared it on Twitter — which means Gresham had no clue about the good vibes he’d sent across the Internet. The Cardinals’ social media manager gave him a heads-up.
“He’s like, ‘Yo, you’re a viral sensation,’” Gresham said, according to the Cardinals website. “I was like, for what? I didn’t get arrested or nothing like that.”
Thankfully, Jermaine, it doesn’t take bad news to go viral. Good news spreads just as fast, and feels a lot better. “I hope anybody would have done that,” he said. Cassidy, who only later discovered it was Gresham, called him an angel.
Let’s take his good deed and run with it by being an “angel” to someone we encounter.
