If you haven’t heard the story of Seattle Seahawks Derrick Coleman, it is a good one. He beat all odds, even going undrafted, to make it to the NFL, and now the Super Bowl, despite being deaf.
“I don’t get pain or anything like that. I don’t need earplugs. My hearing aids are my earplugs,” Coleman said of the loud crowds in Seattle, via the Los Angeles Times. “I feel the vibration. I know they’re yelling — you’ve got a lot of problems if you can’t hear that.”
His story and one-minute Duracell battery commercial has become a source of inspiration for people in the deaf community, including one little girl who wrote him a touching letter.
@Seahawks @DC2forlife you've inspired my little girls in a way I never could. THANK YOU! #Seahawks #SuperBowlXLVIII pic.twitter.com/lhpJfCPOSD
— jake kovalcik (@JakeIsMobile) January 21, 2014
In case you missed the commercial, hear it is: