A Grit Week Miracle: Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman, and Wayne Chrebet Go Out To Dinner, Discuss Steve Largent

I don’t believe in miracles. I believe that you make your own luck by believing in God harder than the guy next to you. The old saying goes that you dont have to outrun the devil you just have to go faster than the other sinner.

That said this article by Mike Reiss at ESPN is a Grit Week miracle:

As we’ve learned this week, “grit” is colorblind. The very word “grit” refers to a texture that you can only understand by feeling, just like braille. So this has nothing to do about race. But these three musketeers are probably 3 of the top 5 WRs in the history of the game in terms of per capita references to there grit and/or moxie.

They met at the “Quality Italian” in New York, ordered chicken parm, and talked for hours about their connection across two different NFL eras — the gutsy, undersized slot receiver thriving in a big man’s game. Their motto, as Danny Amendola of the New England Patriots tweeted, is as straightforward as their style of play on the field: “Across the middle till the day we die.”

Amendola and teammate Julian Edelman came to see the man they call “The Godfather” of all slots, longtime New York Jets great Wayne Chrebet. Now 42 and having last played in 2005, Chrebet couldn’t have been more flattered.

First of all what a hilarious scoop to get if your Mike Reiss. “Hey Mike, this is Julian Edelman and Danny Amendolas publicist. Remember? The one you owe a favor to? Well I’m going to let you in on a little secret…” This is allmost too perfect. The only thing that could make this better is if there was a mention of Wes Welk-

…Wes Welker could have fit right in at their dinner table as slot machines. Also, Chrebet was a fan of Chicago Bears receiver Tom Waddle (1989-1994), in part because he seldom (if ever) wore gloves

Someone has to be playing a elaborate trick on me, this is a Paul Bunyan-type small tale. What a perfect dinner but the only problem is it probably took the server about a hundred attempts to remember which guy was which.

Chrebet was first introduced to Amendola in 2015 by chance. He was at an event, met one of Amendola’s close friends and that’s how the connection was first made; a brief phone call ensued. What Chrebet learned during that call was that Amendola had long admired him, hanging his poster on a wall in his home as a teenager. It’s the same way Chrebet once viewed Seattle Seahawks great Steve Largent (1976-1989).

You hear about the butterfly effect, well the fact that Danny Amendola grew up with a poster of Wayne Chrebet who grew up idolizing Steve Largent is the worker-bee or carpenter ant equivlant. If instead of moving a rubber plant, that little fellas just chipping away working on a route tree. A story like this could only come out at Gritmastime.

PS: BREAKING