A Pittsburgh man’s kind act of generosity is going viral after he had an extra ticket to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens game on Christmas Day — and decided to give it to a random “man on the street.”
Ernest Freeman posted a Facebook message explaining that he initially planned to sell his extra ticket — that is, until he heard the song “Give Love on Christmas Day,” a song about showing love to others on the holiday.
As it turns out, there was a key lyric in the song that got Freeman thinking a bit deeper.
“In the song there’s a line about giving love to the ‘man on the street’ which gave me an idea,” he wrote. “Instead of selling the ticket I invited ‘a man on the street’ to the game.”
Freeman shared a picture of himself alongside the man he gave the ticket to — a 43-year-old stranger he identified as “Ricky.” Freeman also described some of the conversations he had with Ricky about the difficulties he has experienced.
“He told me he’s lost 12 friends this year to heroine overdoses and a few other tough stories,” Freeman wrote. “I offered to buy him anything he wanted during the game and he never once asked for anything, nor did he accept any offers of food or money after the game.”
Ricky purportedly told Freeman that the ticket and invite to sit with him at the game was “the best Christmas gift ever,” and, as it turns out, Freeman also took quite a bit away from the experience.
“The looks on his face during the game looking around the stadium was something I’ll never forget because it reminded me of my own blessings,” he said. “It also reminded me of what this day is all about in that the ability to give is a blessing in itself.”
The act of generosity has been going viral in recent days after Freeman posted his comments and the photo on Facebook. Freelan has said he has no regrets about the way he used that ticket, telling Your Daily Dish he couldn’t have “found a better person to watch the game with that day.”
In the end, he said he saw the act as nothing special and felt he was simply “doing something right.”
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