Lehigh Football Nation

Too often, we define football players by statistics. As sports obsessives, we try to come up with figures and metrics to measure people, their contributions and their relative worth.  QB rating, yards per carry, tackles for loss - all numbers of measurement. Fans forget that there are human beings behind all of those numbers.  They don't encapsulate what it is to be a football player, teammate, person, fighter, boyfriend, husband, and father. Brett Snyder , who passed away this past Sunday at the age of 41, spent his entire life proving, successfully, that numbers don't matter.  He spent a lifetime going beyond mere numbers and showing that heart, fight, perseverance, and touching as many lives as possible in a positive way is much more important. It is the toughness you bring to life, the faith you show, and celebrating life's blessings that mean everything.  I learned this through Brett's extraordinary life.

It's been called "slacktivism". It's been called narcissism masked as charity. But the "ice bucket challenge", which has torn its way in the amazing span of three week from a thing that college athletes and coaches were doing to a world-wide phenomenon, is nothing to cynically wag your finger at. During the last few weeks, a multitude of Lehigh coaches, players, media members, and even athletic director Joe Sterrett have taken the icy bucket of water over their heads. In doing so, they have done incredible good in raising awareness about an awful disease that really needs all the help it can get in regards to a cure. I know this because I didn't just start giving to ALS causes in the last two weeks.

Last week, before the Lehigh/Princeton game, I stopped in to check on a friend, who just happened to be at the Rust Pavillion. FB Brett Snyder , a hero of mine, was there to raise some funds for his ongoing effort to beating ALS, a disease he was diagnosed with nine years ago. Never one to shy away from challenges on the football field, after being given only 18 months to live eight years ago, Brett never gave up, and today he's still fighting.  I was thrilled to be just a very small part of the celebration and fundraiser this past Saturday.

There was no way I was going to miss this tailgate. When I got the news from Rich Knupp , the director of the Lehigh Athletics Partnership, and Kody Fedorcha , the former Lehigh player and current Mountain Hawk broadcaster, that there was going to be a fundraising tailgate to support the Tackle ALS foundation , I was thrilled to be able to go with my family to support this cause that is near to the hearts of many folks in the Lehigh university and high school communities. With a goal of raising $10,000 for raising awareness of ALS and ensuring that Lehigh football family member Brett Snyder is squarely focused on beating the disease more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, Brett's friends "blew that goal right out of the water", said Fedorcha to me and others at the event.   (more)

Brett Snyder '00, forever and always a Lehigh football alumnus, recently appeared in the Morning Call detailing his fight against ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Keith Groller of the Morning Call has done a fantastic job bringing information about Brett Snyder's foundation, Tackle ALS . Keith has done so through his articles, of course, but has also talked about Brett in his blog as well. Last weekend, Brett held an Tackle ALS fundraiser in Starters Riverport in Bethlehem, where Brett presented a $15,000 check to another ALS foundation called ALS Hope: "The money we're donating is going to help the clinic that Dr. Heiman-Patterson runs at the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital in Allentown and also will go to her research and drug trials," Snyder said. "The pharmaceutical companies come to her, and she conducts her own research. We want to help people and increase awareness about ALS." "It's all dedicated to making a difference for peopl...