Christian McCaffrey: The Logan Project

5/31/2023

Running back Christian McCaffrey has made his impact on the field felt ever since being traded to the San Francisco 49ers. However, back in his time with the Carolina Panthers, he was deeply affected by the passing of 12 year old cancer patient Logan Preston Hale. 

Logan had a dieing wish, to give every kid in his position a gaming console so that they could stay in contact with their friends. The idea came from when his mother bought him a portable console for during his stay at the hospital. "So for him ... it eased the pain a little bit because he was able to communicate directly with all his friends from school, his friends from sports and whatnot,” she said.

Logan came to notice that he was the only kid in the hospital to have such a gift. He found his hospitalmates having to battle their illness’ without the voices of their friends in their ears. Logan’s mother recalled then that Logan maturely proposed to her his idea, wishing for a fund to provide kids with longterm illnesses with xbox systems.

Logan went to work as much as he could. He asked his 19 year old brother to help him in his initiative. His mother surprisingly found a “to do list” for his idea. On the note Logan had written his first step as “save money” and step 2 as “call microsoft”. Even in such a weakened and severe state, Logan was behaving beyond his years, acting for the wellness of others. 

Christian McCaffrey’s first interaction with Logan came when a NFL representative asked McCaffrey to sign a game ball for the cancer patient. McCaffrey felt touched by the interaction and did not hesitate to no just sign the ball but also provide personal video messages to Logan.

Logan’s mother recalled in the messages McCaffrey said “keep pounding, to fight like hell — to encourage him to continue to fight against the disease.” Further about McCaffrey she said, “He was trying to encourage Logan to continue to fight because he was in a very severe state in ICU.”

Logan passed away on Dec 30 2021, shortly after his 13th birthday. Mccaffrey was saddened by the news and further impacted when he was told Logan was buried wearing a Panthers #22 Mccaffrey Jersey. “That hit me like a ton of bricks,” he stated. The running back felt that from then on there had to be a way to carry on Logan’s name forever. “The Logan Project” had already began, realizing Logan’s dream of providing other hospitalized children with gaming consoles. Mccaffrey decided to step in to dramatically boost and move the project forwards. 

Each console is set up to allow the kids to simply log in and access their accounts and contacts, as close to what they could get from home. Logan’s father shared, “Neither children, nor the hospital, have to buy their own games. Everything is already installed. If a new game comes out, it would just automatically be downloaded into all the stations. They come with the controls, they come with the headsets, so the kids could just log into their own accounts and utilize everything that's on the hard drive and be able to play with the kids that they know at home.”

The project wishes to ease the pain of recovering from long term illnesses but also increase connectivity and interaction for these kids who are isolated from their schools. Each console draws a hefty $3,500, but the foundation with Mccaffrey’s help has already raised $35,000. 

Football players and those who are in successful positions are obligated to at least concern themselves with those who can not access such fortunes. Logan’s life was cut short, he was never able to play football like his favorite player Christian McCaffrey, but still thought about others before his own misfortunes.

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Works Cited

Caruso, Skyler. "Christian McCaffrey Honors His Super Fan Who Died of Cancer at Age 12: 'Let His Name Live on Forever.'" People.com, 19 May 2023, people.com/sports/christian-mccafferty-honors-12-year-old-super-fan-who-died-of-cancer-charity-bowl/.

Fox, Sandra Diamond. "Carolina Panther honors Connecticut boy's dying wish." The Ridgefield Press.com, 16 Aug. 2022, www.theridgefieldpress.com/news/article/Carolina-Panther-helps-fulfill-late-CT-boy-s-wish-17375278.php.