A football player second, a father first.
GREG OLSEN IS ONE OF THE BEST tight ends in the NFL, and in the years since being acquired by the Panthers in 2011, he’s become one of Charlotte’s most prominent parents.
In 2012, his son T.J. was born with a congenital heart defect. T.J. underwent several open-heart surgeries at Levine Children’s Hospital in his first few years—surgeries and time that parents who don’t make $7.5 million a year, as Olsen does, often can’t afford. So Olsen and his wife, Kara, started a foundation called the HEARTest Yard, which gives financial assistance to families of children born with congenital heart diseases, to help those families through long hospital stays. In 2015, the foundation gave out $445,000 in grants and awards.
On top of that, Olsen is regularly spotted around town participating in fundraising events and helping in other ways.In the summer of 2013, for instance, cameras caught him assisting at the scene of a car accident he happened to witness in south Charlotte. And he’s gone to Raleigh to lobby the legislature to pass a bill that would make certain heart-related tests mandatory for newborns.
In the days after the Panthers lost by a single point in their season-opener against the Broncos on national television in September, Olsen spent some time with writer Bill Voth, whose website, Black & Blue Review, is an online news site covering the Panthers. The two didn’t talk about football. Instead, they talked about the lessons Olsen has learned since becoming a father to son Tate (now 5) and T.J. and his twin sister, Talbot, who turned four in October.
Here’s Olsen, in his words (edited for clarity and space):
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