Tom Brady says he plans to send a football to a California man who was forced to abandon his home due to the devastating Camp Fire, saving only his #12 Pats jersey on his way out the door.
NBC10 Boston spoke to Christian Holland, who says he lost his home in Paradise, California to the deadly fire earlier this month.
"I could hear the propane tanks exploding across the street," Holland said via Skype.
From his hotel room Friday, Holland described the moment he lost his home.
"We got out of there as quick as we could," he recalled. "I just didn't have any time to think...I'm a Patriots fan, a die hard Patriots fan so I had to save the jersey."
Holland grabbed the Tom Brady jersey that he saw in his closet and then took to social media to announce he had saved it. It was a move that caught the attention of the player who inspired it.
Brady originally posted on Instagram Thursday about the New England Patriots fan.
The quarterback posted two pictures that Holland shared on social media, including one of him wearing a surgical mask and holding up his Brady jersey.
"The only thing I grabbed out of my house on the morning of November 8 as The Camp Fire in Paradise, CA consumed the entire town, was my Tom Brady #12 Game Jersey! I lost everything ... (GO PATRIOTS)," the fan said in a post shared by Brady.
"So many heart wrenching stories of loss from my home state..." Brady said, "but you're crazy Christian! Can anyone get me an address to send a ball to go with the jersey?"
Brady commented later that someone was ultimately able to help him find an address for Holland.
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At his media availability on Friday, Brady confirmed that he was able to get a hold of the man and plans to send him a ball.
"Yeah, that was pretty cool, pretty touching," he said of the whole exchange. "You think about the effect that you can have on certain people, not just in this part of the country but in California. I know we got a hold of him and [I am] going to send him something. But it's a tough situation I think everyone out in California was dealing with. Those fires were crazy and they certainly need a lot of help."
"I can't imagine losing my house and everything I own," Brady added. "That would be very difficult. Whether it was the floods in Houston last year which were really tough — I mean these natural disasers, for a lot of these people dealing with real life, I think it puts a lot of stuff in perspective in your life. You lose a game and you feel like, 'Man, the whole world's caving in,' but it's really, keeping things in perspective, you realize there's a lot of people dealing with a lot of things that are very tough. And just to be able to provide support, I think for us as athletes, is pretty cool and important in what we do."
For a family left with almost nothing, it's a gesture that meant everything to one Brady fan.
"It’s like so unbelievable actually. This doesn’t happen every single day when somebody has a champion like Tom reaches out to you," Holland said. "There was just no time to grab anything else and I'm glad I did."
Holland says he didn't get to speak to Brady himself, but he sent him a P.O. box for that ball that he's looking forward to receiving.
