Deion Sanders has created many viral moments over his profession. One specifically resonates for a distinct cause.
On Sept. 28 final 12 months, Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes had simply blown out beforehand undefeated UCF 48-21 in Orlando. Andrew Cherico, a 21-year-old pupil reporter, confirmed up at Sanders’ postgame information convention, hoping he may ask a query for his job overlaying the Knights for a small web site, Sons of UCF, that he was interning for.
When Cherico received referred to as on in, his fingers had been shaking. His coronary heart was racing. He’d been out at UCF since 8 a.m., and it was now shut to eight p.m. That’s a full day for anybody, a lot much less somebody confined to a wheelchair, as Cherico has been since he was 9 years outdated.
“It was like 1,000 levels that day in Florida, and by the point I requested my query, I used to be exhausted,” Cherico stated. He would find yourself working a 17-hour day earlier than getting again dwelling at 1 a.m. and was so worn down, he vomited on his approach out of the stadium that evening (and he didn’t need work to know).
Earlier than the convention started, Cherico tried to place himself in one of the best spot he may to get referred to as on. He had began going over his query in his head earlier than the sport ended. He determined he would attempt to ask Sanders how Colorado was capable of shut down R.J. Harvey and the nation’s main dashing assault.
Sanders started to reply Cherico’s query in regards to the Buffs’ run protection, however then stopped and centered on the reporter.
“I’m happy with you and your resilience and what you undergo every day,” Sanders advised Cherico. “I’m so darn happy with you, you haven’t any thought. As a result of I used to be in a (wheel) chair at one level with these toes being amputated. And I do know what you take care of every day. I needed to change my complete rest room and put rails in so I may even get on the darn bathroom, man. So I perceive, and I’m happy with you man, actually.”
Wow, I’m blessed past perception to have witnessed @DeionSanders giving me a shoutout telling me he’s happy with me and all of the work I do particularly with the adversity I take care of from my bodily incapacity. Thanks Coach Prime it means the world. 🙏🏼
Rising up with a incapacity… pic.twitter.com/5OIJUzrVPN
— Andrew Cherico (@Andrew_Cherico) September 29, 2024
Cherico couldn’t imagine what he had heard.
“I felt each butterfly in my abdomen crawl as much as me,” he stated. “And that’s when all of the folks began turning their heads round within the room to me — OK, yeah, he’s actually speaking about me proper now. I’m not going loopy.”
Cherico was born with spinal muscular atrophy. Technically, he has what is called SMA Sort 3, a neuromuscular incapacity that impacts all of the muscle tissue in his physique. He was capable of stroll till he was 9, but it surely’s a progressive illness that first induced him to enter a guide wheelchair, then a wheelchair with assistants, after which the ability wheelchair he depends on now.
“Fortunately, trendy medication has halted the development of it,” he stated.
His dad put him in entrance of the TV with a New York Jets jersey on when he was solely 2. Andrew all the time beloved sports activities, particularly the aggressive side of it, however he was additionally conscious he would by no means get to play for the Jets sometime or play within the NBA like Michael Jordan. By the point he was 6, his aunt, listening to the little boy rattle off all kinds of sports activities statistics, advised him, “Some day, you’re gonna be a sports activities broadcaster.”
He’d take heed to Gary Cohen name Mets video games and Kevin Harlan and Ian Eagle do soccer and basketball video games, and by the point he was 10, he’d give you his dream job and believed he may do all the things they might. However his true function fashions, he stated, are his mother and father (his father is a retired NYPD detective and his mom is a nurse’s assistant), who all the time motivated him to maintain going.
Wheelchair or not, they by no means wished Andrew to really feel separated from the group regardless of no matter challenges he confronted. He graduated from a faculty in New York for college kids with disabilities in a category of solely about 15. The school he selected to go to, UCF, has 70,000 college students.
There was quite a lot of tradition shock when he first received to school, however he picked UCF as a result of he beloved the nice and cozy climate, town of Orlando and the power of the college that first caught his eye in 2017 when Scott Frost led the Knights to a 14-0 document. He and his mother and father moved to Florida in 2023, after he took a niche 12 months.
Andrew wasn’t positive of one of the best ways to attempt to break into the enterprise, however in April 2023, he began a Twitter account.
“I used to be tweeting to no person for the primary two or three months,” he stated. “However I simply knew that that is what I wished to do, and ultimately, I began selecting up a couple of folks alongside the way in which, and other people began to get pleasure from my work.”
Sons of UCF, an impartial website devoted to overlaying all issues UCF Knights, seen Cherico wished to be a journalist and requested if he wished to become involved. He was all in.
“We’re a small outfit,” stated Adam Eaton, the positioning’s founder. “It’s simply two of us.”
Cherico’s job with Sons of UCF was a paid internship wherein he received school credit score and a stipend each month for his 20-plus hours of labor. It helped that his dad may drive him to all of the video games and practices. It additionally helped that Andrew’s outgoing nature allows him to attach simply with all kinds of individuals.
“The factor with Andrew is that he’s been counted out his total life,” Eaton stated. “We don’t inform him no. If he has an thought and needs to do one thing, we work out methods to assist him and let him do it. I’d all the time inform him, ‘Inform us what your plan is, the way you wish to get it achieved and what you want from us, and we’ll assist you.’ And he makes it work. Fortunately, the group of UCF has actually embraced him.”
This summer season, Cherico was employed by 247Sports’ UCF website, Knights247 — a much bigger platform and a transfer up the profession ladder. This week, he traveled out of state for the primary time for his job, overlaying the Large 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas. Air journey is the largest problem for him. Each time he has to get on a airplane, he tries to reach on the gate three hours early. He has to talk with the airport’s ramp supervisor about transporting his motorized wheelchair, which prices $30,000. He all the time brings directions with the chair. He’s heard so many tales of wheelchairs being damaged or broken.
“These,” he stated, referencing his chair, “are these folks’s lives. With out this chair, we’re caught.”
It’s solely a part of what makes air journey such a trouble. He can’t use an airplane rest room. And when he lands, getting a wheelchair-accessible taxi can usually take longer than the flight. He stated he referred to as 20 totally different cab firms across the DFW space to attempt to get a trip earlier than he discovered somebody who was capable of suggest a driver who may help him, and that particular person was in Fort Price. His first evening in Dallas, he went out to get dinner and referred to as the driving force he had used earlier. He was within the automobile for eight minutes, and he stated the journey value him $75.
“Each time I’m going someplace, I all the time have a Plan A, B and C,” he stated. “After I received right here, I had a Plan A and a Plan B and each of these failed, so I used to be kinda caught. I didn’t even know if I used to be gonna have the ability to make it right here.”
Deion Sanders (left) pictured with Cherico. Courtesy of Andrew Cherico.
The additional he will get into chasing his dream, the extra Andrew has come to imagine that that is all a lot larger than him, that his actual drive is to encourage folks like him. A number of weeks earlier than he flew to Texas, he went to Disneyland in California to talk at a three-day convention with panels for folks coping with SMA, the neurological illness he has. There have been a number of hundred folks in attendance. After he spoke and shared his story, a couple of mother and father approached him, telling him how inspiring he’s and wanting him to speak to their children.
“There are such a lot of folks like me that don’t get a voice, that really feel trapped of their bubble,” he stated. “I didn’t know what I used to be gonna do with my life. I can’t get off the bed by myself, can’t go to the toilet. However I nonetheless discover a approach to make it occur, and I need them to know that they will, too, with only a bit of religion and hope. I’m simply attempting to undergo life as a daily particular person chasing my dream. ”
As he tells his story of what it’s been prefer to chase his life’s dream whereas persevering with to understand how steep his climb shall be, it’s laborious for him to not get emotional.
“My finish aim is to actually use my platform to hopefully attain knowledgeable stage and get some recognition that I can encourage different folks with my incapacity to see that it’s attainable which you could pursue the profession that you really want,” he stated. “Chances are you’ll have to work a little bit bit more durable; you might have to place your self in sure methods, however it’s attainable.
“I wish to do all this stuff, however then generally life simply hits me a little bit bit. Like a ton of bricks generally. It’s unlucky, realizing that I’m prepared for the world, however the world isn’t prepared for a man like me.”
He wasn’t going to let something cease him from attending to Dallas. The college he covers has a brand new coach (properly, its outdated coach — Frost — has come again). There are additionally so many individuals he wished to satisfy. He additionally wished to attempt to see Sanders, to thank him for a “life-changing second.”
The day after Sanders’ feedback at UCF final 12 months, Cherico had posted about “the actually cool second.” “I’d hit click on and lots of of retweets began coming in about it,” stated Cherico, who had performed as Sanders within the Madden video video games for years. One of many new followers he picked up after his submit was Sanders.
On the second day of Large 12 Media Days, Sanders, with Colorado, arrived in Frisco, and Cherico received his probability to talk with the Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer and inform him what his phrases meant to him.
Sanders advised The Athletic it was nice to see Cherico in Texas.
“It’s simply to see him smiling and doing his factor,” he stated. “It takes so much to get right here, and we take it with no consideration. My hat is off and my prayers are for him. That’s unbelievable what he’s conducting.”
Cherico stated seeing Sanders reminds him that he belongs right here within the media area, pursuing his goals; that he can do that job, regardless that he was in all probability one of many youngest folks within the room that day and the one particular person with a bodily incapacity.
“Even after I’m getting beat down by the world and after I really feel like I’ll not have the ability to pursue this profession, as a result of I can’t be as fast as everyone else pulling out my tripod, that I can’t get my microphone out as quick, or that I’ve to search out satisfactory area so I can arrange my questions,” he stated. “However then, I’ve a scenario like that with Deion Sanders, and it jogs my memory that I can do that. It jogs my memory that this area, that it doesn’t matter what, with my mindset, I could make one thing occur.”
(Prime picture of Sanders on the UCF postgame convention in 2024: Don Juan Moore / Getty Photographs)
