Former NFL Star Randy Moss Makes Good on a Promise He Made 15 Years Earlier to a Cancer-Stricken Toddler

26 May, 2015 by Cassy Fiano

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A lot of NFL stars are infamous for their crimes, but there are plenty of athletes who also choose to use their celebrity to help others. One such athlete is former NFL star Randy Moss, who befriended a toddler battling cancer, and then made good on his promise to be there for her high school graduation.

A long journey for one Pelican Rapids High School student reached a milestone Friday night.

And former NFL star Randy Moss was there to see it.

Moss surprised many in Pelican Rapids by appearing at the graduation ceremony.

Moss’ reason for being there was to hand a high school diploma to senior Kassi Spier, said Pelican Rapids Public School District Superintendent Deb Wanek.

Spier developed a friendship with Moss during his playing days with the Minnesota Vikings.

Wanek said Spier battled leukemia in her youth. Then, in 2004, Spier’s father died in a car accident. And in 2013, Spier was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Yet through it all, she managed to graduate, and Moss wasn’t going to miss seeing it.

“She’s had many struggles in her life, and he’s been there for her,” Wanek said. “He told her he’d be at her high school graduation.”

… The St. Paul Pioneer Press also published a story around that time regarding the friendship between Moss and Spier.

It describes how Moss in September 2000 visited Spier, then a 4-year-old, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester after her leukemia diagnosis.

Spier told the Pioneer Press that Moss had a hard time saying goodbye during that visit.

“He cried because he didn’t want to leave,” she said at the time.

Wanek didn’t know that Moss would be at the graduation ceremony until shortly before it started.

“We had heard there was a possibility,” she said. “But we didn’t know.”

It’s amazing enough that these two were able to build such an incredible friendship over the years, but that Moss would still be there for her at her graduation is a wonderful gesture. More NFL stars could do well to follow his example of what a professional athlete should be.