Viral Pittsburgh Steelers fan reacts to signed Chase Claypool jersey: ‘I got to see my dad again’
BJ Swoager pulled out his phone and started recording. He was witness to something he hadn’t seen in months.
His 76-year-old father, Jimmy, was opening a FedEx package. And in it was a jersey signed by the man who sent it, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool.
“The crazy thing is, we haven’t really seen any emotion out of him, probably in the last two months,” Swoager told USA TODAY Sports. “He kind of sits in the room. And he was a yeller. We’re from Pittsburgh. We’re loud. We’re obnoxious. We’re screaming at refs.
“I hadn’t seen my dad cry in maybe five, six months, and we would cry together all the time. When he started reading what Chase wrote, my dad just sat there and started weeping. Overjoyed. To see all those emotions, which we hadn’t seen in six months, I got to see my dad again. My mom, she got to see her husband again.”
It all started with an earlier TikTok video, and one that came out of a simple question Swoager asked his father.
“Dad, what would make you happy?”
A lifelong Steelers fan and Pittsburgh native, Jimmy replied that he was having a difficult time remembering the name of that rookie on the team, the one who was scoring all the touchdowns.
It was about a year ago that Jimmy was officially diagnosed with dementia. And the rookie was Claypool, who now has 333 receiving yards and six total touchdowns this year.
So Swoager, a student pastor at Faith Community Fellowship in Trussville, Alabama, started shooting the first TikTok video. He posted it to his account October 16 and it shows Jimmy wearing Steelers gear and holding up various jerseys of previous stars on the team. Swoager explains the dementia diagnosis and mentions how they still watch all the Steeler games, but that his father struggles to remember the names and some historical details of the team’s franchise history. Swoager tagged Claypool, fellow receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and the Steelers’ official TikTok accounts.
Shortly after, Claypool followed Swoager and they exchanged messages.
Four days later, Claypool checked in again. He told Swoager that he would be sending his father a signed jersey and asked what he wanted it to say. Claypool’s only condition was that Swoager keep it secret for the time being. But before signing off, Claypool had another message to convey. He wished Swoager a happy 40th birthday.
“Bro, I couldn’t believe it,” Swoager said. “I couldn’t believe he was writing me. And then I had Chase Claypool wish me a happy birthday on my actual birthday. It’s incredible. I was blown away just from that. Just unbelievable how kind he is.”
Then, on Tuesday morning, Claypool shared his own TikTok video on his verified account, showing him holding up a jersey, signing it and heading to a FedEx store to ship it.
Claypool also posted it on Twitter, where it went viral.
