Back in 1998, two-year-old Kassi Spier caught Randy Moss‘ attention when she yelled his name while Moss was going through his first training camp with the Minnesota Vikings.
The two quickly formed a bond, a bond that became stronger in 2000 after Spier was diagnosed with leukemia. Despite the leukemia, Spier still made it to training camp that year to visit Moss, according to a St. Paul Pioneer-Press story. “Randy loves that girl to death,” Daunte Culpepper said at the time. “They have that connection, and I think it’s beautiful.”
An Associated Press story from 2003 also noted that Moss would take Spier to lunch every day while holding her “tiny hand.”
Moss has been there for Spier for well over a decade and once again, he was there for her on Friday when he handed Spier her high school diploma at a graduation ceremony that took place in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. Spier was among the 72 graduates who received a diploma at Pelican Rapids High School, according to the Pelican Rapids Press.
Pelican Rapids Public School District Superintendent Deb Wanek told the Fargo Forum that Moss had promised Spier he’d be at the ceremony. “She’s had many struggles in her life, and he’s been there for her,” Wanek said. “He told her he’d be at her high school graduation.”
Even after Moss left Minnesota in 2004, he stayed in touch with Spier. It hasn’t been an easy 17 years for Spier: Not only was she diagnosed with leukemia, but her dad died in a car accident in 2004 and she was also diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2013, but she always had a loving shoulder to lean on in Moss.
article by John Breech via cbssports.com