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Mad Dash: Author of viral blog about Peyton Manning finally meets the QB with her sons

Max Thompson
Mad Dash: Author of viral blog about Peyton Manning finally meets the QB with her sons

When Laurie Lattimore Volkmann wrote a heartfelt tribute in her blog to Peyton Manning following last year's Super Bowl loss to the Seattle Seahawks, she could never have expected the piece to go viral, nor that it would eventually lead to her family meeting the man himself. Here's a small excerpt from the piece that garnered so much attention earlier this year:

You don’t hand down Super Bowl trophies. You don’t hand down NFL MVPs or franchise records. And you don’t hand down touchdowns, statistics or win-loss records.

You hand down an example of work ethic, of courage to come back after a career-threatening injury, of humility in victory and graciousness in defeat, and of perspective on one’s own accomplishments.

That legacy matters, and that’s why yours is untarnished even - and especially - after Sunday's loss.

To make a long story short, that blog got around to a lot of people, and a few with friends in high places became friends with Lattimore Volkmann. Fast forward to last Saturday, and she and the rest of her family got to share a few minutes with their hero the night before he and the Denver Broncos took on the Kansas City Chiefs. As detailed extensively on FoxSports, it was a special moment the family will never forget.

The blog was never discussed, but Lattimore Volkmann, a journalism professor at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, was thrilled with the surprise visit -- as were her sons, 7-year-old Calvin and 4-year-old Tanner.

"He literally looked like a college kid with jeans and a sweater and a JanSport backpack on his shoulder bulging with stuff," Lattimore Volkmann said. "Mostly what I said to him was how happy I was he took the time to meet us. I think it's a big deal.

"Even though it's 10 minutes, it's an important time getting ready before a game. To make that extra time was amazing and speaks to everything he's about."

Lattimore Volkmann summed up the experience perfectly on Facebook afterward.

Airfare to Denver (x4): $1600, Hotel x2 nights: $400, Denver Broncos tix: $500, Meeting Peyton Manning? ARE YOU FREAKIN KIDDING? All kinds of awesome.

Less awesome are the mudslinging efforts of Andrew Cuomo's campaign in New York. The incumbent governer's contingent fired shots at challenger Rob Astorino in a recent commercial for being – wait for it – a Miami Dolphins fan in New York. OK then.

But a weird video that was perhaps more awesome than both of the previous stories was Hunter Pence joining Kinda Funny for a rap parody tribute to all those amazing Hunter Pence signs that keep showing up at MLB ballparks.

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The Yahoo Sports Mad Dash is a roundup of the morning's trending stories from across the sports landscape. Check it out every day to see what's buzzing.