Angels and wise men come in all shapes and sizes. This one stands 6 foot 2 and weighs 310 pounds.
Texans defensive tackle Maliek Collins provided a family he had never met with an unexpected, once-in-a-lifetime Christmas. Collins’ gift to Courtney Luhrs and her 17-year-old son, Ethan, is an all-expenses-paid trip to Houston to see the Texans play the Jaguars on New Year’s Day.
“It feels good to be able to surprise a family who obviously supports us on Sundays,” Collins said. “It’s just about bringing light to somebody else’s life. It’s the holiday season, but it’s always the season of giving.”
Luhrs, a single mom and full-time student working toward an associate degree in cyber security, reluctantly asked for help before Christmas with a post on the NextDoor app serving her Torrance, California, neighborhood. Ann O’Dell saw the post, and her family adopted the Luhrs.
The first thing Luhrs texted O’Dell was: “Ethan said he wanted signed Christmas cards. It’s just the two of us, and so I am thinking to him that symbolizes family. Ethan wants Christmas cards to have displayed and that would make his Christmas. He is an amazing son.”
“That’s so simple and basic,” O’Dell said. “That really was the genesis of it.”
While O’Dell and her family filled the base of the Christmas tree with gifts, O’Dell set out on a mission to load the Luhrs’ mailbox with Christmas cards. She texted friends and family, who not only sent cards but forwarded the request. I asked O’Dell, a friend, to ask Ethan his favorite football team, and surprisingly, he said the Texans.
The public relations staffs of the Chargers, Rams and 49ers and the Cowboys and Texans fulfilled my request to send Ethan a Christmas card. Some threw in a gift, including a 49ers’ division championship hat that ended up topping the family’s Christmas tree.
Texans football communications manager Evert Geerlings took a card into the locker room last week for some players to sign. The defensive linemen had just returned from a community event at Isaacs Elementary, an inner-city school in Houston, which Collins said put him in a giving spirit.
Before he signed the card, Collins asked Geerlings who the card was for and what the story was. What happened next stunned even Geerlings.
“I’ve been around the league nine years now and had the opportunity to work with some amazing people,” Geerlings said, “and I told Maliek, ‘The fact that you are the first person that I’ve seen do something like this to this extent says a lot.’ I’ve seen a lot of great people do a lot of nice things, but I’ve never worked with someone who just literally out of the blue said, ‘I want to take care of this kid. Can we make it happen?’ It was in the blink of an eye.”
Collins initially declined a request from PFT to write about his generosity, but he finally agreed.
The story is too good to be left untold.
“I’ve done some other stuff, but I’m a fly-under-the-radar type,” said Collins, who spent four seasons with the Cowboys, one with the Raiders and now is in his second season in Houston. “I’m really just a normal person, but I look at it from perspective. When I was Ethan’s age, something like this probably would have changed my life, so I would love to have that impact on someone else.”
Geerlings and O’Dell arranged a surprise FaceTime call between Collins and Courtney and Ethan last Friday night. When Malik introduced himself, Ethan started crying, and Courtney kept repeating, “Wait, what?” when they learned of the offer. Courtney, who is from Houston, still has family there she hasn’t seen in several years.
The Luhrs will fly into Houston on Saturday and go directly to NRG Stadium to meet Collins for the first time as he guides them on a tour.
“I totally whole-heartedly believe this whole thing is a God moment,” Courtney said. “I really wrestled whether to post something, and just getting so many Christmas cards, knowing somebody out there cares, has changed Ethan. It’s just been amazing, and it shows you just how amazing people can be.”