Eagles player takes girl to dance after her father’s death
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(NewsNation Now) — Philadelphia Eagles safety Anthony Harris made a huge play, but it was nowhere near a football field.
Harris flew to Texas to take an 11-year-old girl he’d never met to a daddy-daughter dance two years after her father died.
“I was like so surprised,” Audrey Soape said on “The Donlon Report.” “I couldn’t believe anything, and I was super nervous and excited.”
Audrey Soape’s mother, Holly Soape, didn’t know Harris personally, but the two connected on social media in 2019. Harris, then a Minnesota Viking, posted a photo of cleats honoring his late grandfather. Holly Soape messaged him to say she was sorry for his loss. Harris thanked her.
When her husband died, Holly reached out again. Two years later, she came to him with a “big ask” — could he escort Audrey to their church’s daddy-daughter dance?
Harris told them he could do it as long as his team wasn’t preparing for a playoff game. Unfortunately for the Eagles, but fortunately for Audrey, his schedule was clear after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat them last month.
The event could have been awkward, but Harris said it became a great time.
“I tried to initially give her some distance and let her be a kid and let her enjoy the time with her friends without her feeling like someone is over her shoulder, while not being too far away if some of her friends started dancing with their fathers … so she could have someone there to support her,” Harris told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
He also bought her a dress and paid for her hair and makeup. Audrey said she “felt like a princess.”
“He was talking with her, he was engaging with her, he was getting her to dance,” Holly Soape said on “The Donlon Report.” “They ran around the church. They were doing a scavenger hunt. I mean, she was laughing she was smiling the whole time. It was just incredible.”
The circumstances that brought the Soapes and Harris together are tragic, but the night helped put a smile on a grieving daughter’s face.
“It’ll always remind me of my father and how much he loved me,” Audrey said. “And also I’ll always remember how Anthony did this lovely thing for me.”