Donald Driver: class act. (1 Viewer)

[The Kerminator]

Donald Driver holds an annual charity softball game which is very popular in the Green Bay area. On Sunday, as he was leaving the field he tossed pieces of equipment into the crowd. One of these was one of his cleats, which was snatched from a kid by a lady.

Video here

Driver after hearing about this made arrangements to meet with the kid;

Driver to connect with boy who had shoe swiped from him

Green Bay -- By now, you've seen our video of a woman swiping Donald Driver's cleat away from a boy at his charity softball game. Since then, web madness ensued. The clip quickly spread with plenty of outrage on Twitter and beyond.

Well, the boy's name is Stephen Wagner. And Driver plans on helping him out.

Here's what he tweeted today...

Donald_Driver80: Looking forward to connecting with Stephen and his family to get him a new cleat and some other gear! Thanks for all your help Packer Nation

Through this all, Stephen and his family have been class acts. Caught up them briefly after the incident and then again later. They're not spiteful. And, of course, it'll be a generous gesture by Driver once they are able to connect.

Wagner, Driver are Good Morning America bound

Green Bay -- Yes, it's been a wild couple days in the world of 12-year-old Stephen Wagner of Ripon, Wisc. One day after a fan tore away Donald Driver’s cleat from his grasp, Wagner met with the Green Bay Packers wide receiver at Fox Cities Stadium. Their visit together will air Tuesday morning on "Good Morning America."

Driver saw the video clip of the incident soon after his charity softball game and tweeted that he wanted to get in touch with the boy. So, once Stephen was out of school, the two got together.

The visit was a surprise to Stephen, who thought he was heading back to Fox Cities Stadium to get some Packers gear from the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Instead, Driver, a television camera and a ton of autographed memorabilita were waiting for him. Here's the rundown of what Driver gave him, according to his mother, Mary Wagner.

A pair of cleats, autographed to Stephen

A signed baseball bat, signed "To my No. 1 fan and true hero"

A signed jersey

Three books Driver wrote

Autographed Packer cups

"He was just so nervous," Mary Wagner said. "He was thrilled, just thrilled to see Donald. He's kind of a reserved kid. But he was thrilled. He's probably not going to sleep for a week. It was wonderful. Donald was great."

Wagner also noted that, Robyn Ereth, the woman who took the cleat from her son at the softball game reached out to Stephen and his family. Ereth was apologetic and Wagner says they're all on good terms.

"We told her that we didn't have any bad feelings toward her," Mary said. "She offered to send the cleat back. She was wonderful."

The video of Ereth swiping the shoe away set off a web firestorm Sunday. Driver wanted this all to end in "a positive resolution," his marketing agent Brian Lammi said. In less than 24 hours, he did that.

"He saw some of the coverage of the situation," Lammi said. "He wasn't aware of that originally. He just wanted to make sure Stephen had a good experience, that he was able to get connected with him. And it was who he was aiming to shoe for. He saw a younger kid there that he was looking to get the shoe to. He just felt like he had to make sure he got a shoe and a couple of other things to go along with it."

Stephen could have talked if he was around. Instead, he had a baseball game to play in. His mother said he's on cloud nine right now.

"He's a pretty reserved kid but it's not so bad to get attention for a little while for a kid that age," she said. "He's enjoying the heck out of it."

Nice to see. DD

 

[menobrown]

Yes Driver is a class act. I've relayed the story here before but I'll tell it again.

My daughter attended pre-school with Drivers two children in his off-season home in the Dallas area. This was a small school with about 25-30 kids and not really elite by any stretch of the imagination.

I'd run into him a few times dropping my kid off but did not want to bother him and never said anything other than hello.

Last day of school the Drivers sent out on invitation for a party at their house. I pretty much tried to take my kid to every party she was invited to but knew we were going to this one. Showed up at the house, went to pool in back and only saw other Mrs. Driver along with some other parents and no sign of Donald. Figured he might me busy that day if he was even in town.

Went into guest/pool house to change my daughter and there was DD in the kitchen icing down drinks for the kids and getting ready to grill some hot dogs and ribs.

This was nothing special he did for me but I was the last arriving parent so he came over to me after we ate and asked if I'd like a tour of his house which I think he'd already done earlier with some of the other parents. So he shows me every room, the coolest being the basement with the pool table/video games and sports memorabilia where he had a lot of photos and jerseys of NBA and NFL players but his favorite thing was a framed knife used in Stallone movie Cobra. He said he was really good friends with the guy who played the villian in that movie. At one point I'm standing in his closest and I'm thinking how surreal is this, I'm sitting here chatting with Donald Driver in his closest as he's showing me his massive tennis shoe collection.

Anyway the one point I want to make is the guy had no air of superiority about him and when he was showing me his house and stuff it was just a guy being proud and did not come off as bragging. Just acted like another guy. At one point I even told him how his house looked a lot bigger on the inside than it did on the outside and he said he was glad to hear that because he did not want it to look like he was the guy with the huge house. Modesty.

The other thing is it would be easy for a guy like that do dole out more of the parenting task to his non-working wife but it was obvious he was as involved a parent as the rest of us "normal" working dads.

Just a good solid dude. Absolutely a class act.

 

[werdnoynek]

great stuff from DD - as usual. glad he was willing to take a cut to stay with us this season, which may be his last. great he could be end his career where it began. he'll always be a staple of the organization and the community.

 

[Sabertooth]

Yes Driver is a class act. I've relayed the story here before but I'll tell it again.My daughter attended pre-school with Drivers two children in his off-season home in the Dallas area. This was a small school with about 25-30 kids and not really elite by any stretch of the imagination. I'd run into him a few times dropping my kid off but did not want to bother him and never said anything other than hello. Last day of school the Drivers sent out on invitation for a party at their house. I pretty much tried to take my kid to every party she was invited to but knew we were going to this one. Showed up at the house, went to pool in back and only saw other Mrs. Driver along with some other parents and no sign of Donald. Figured he might me busy that day if he was even in town.Went into guest/pool house to change my daughter and there was DD in the kitchen icing down drinks for the kids and getting ready to grill some hot dogs and ribs.This was nothing special he did for me but I was the last arriving parent so he came over to me after we ate and asked if I'd like a tour of his house which I think he'd already done earlier with some of the other parents. So he shows me every room, the coolest being the basement with the pool table/video games and sports memorabilia where he had a lot of photos and jerseys of NBA and NFL players but his favorite thing was a framed knife used in Stallone movie Cobra. He said he was really good friends with the guy who played the villian in that movie. At one point I'm standing in his closest and I'm thinking how surreal is this, I'm sitting here chatting with Donald Driver in his closest as he's showing me his massive tennis shoe collection.Anyway the one point I want to make is the guy had no air of superiority about him and when he was showing me his house and stuff it was just a guy being proud and did not come off as bragging. Just acted like another guy. At one point I even told him how his house looked a lot bigger on the inside than it did on the outside and he said he was glad to hear that because he did not want it to look like he was the guy with the huge house. Modesty.The other thing is it would be easy for a guy like that do dole out more of the parenting task to his non-working wife but it was obvious he was as involved a parent as the rest of us "normal" working dads. Just a good solid dude. Absolutely a class act.

When I got to the part about the knife, all I could think was "Arrest me, pig." Great story though. Class act.

 

[GregR]

Anyone notice the girl who caught his visor, screamed like a teen and then looked like she held it to her nose to smell it?

Come on, it's Donald Driver, not the Beatles.

to Driver though.

 

[werdnoynek]

Anyone notice the girl who caught his visor, screamed like a teen and then looked like she held it to her nose to smell it? Come on, it's Donald Driver, not the Beatles. to Driver though.

 

[meyerj31]

Anyone notice the girl who caught his visor, screamed like a teen and then looked like she held it to her nose to smell it? Come on, it's Donald Driver, not the Beatles. to Driver though.

Yea, and even then, I have no desire to sniff Lennon's shoes. In fact, I can say for certain, there is no person in history that I would want to sniff their used shoes.