via @Ky1eLong

A birthday party turned into a day one kid will never forget, thanks to an appearance by an NFL player.

Nine-year-old Andrew Oyston had been bullied on his school bus. He told his father, who then forwarded the story to Chicago Bears offensive lineman Kyle Long via Twitter. From there, the story only goes up.

When Long heard about the incident, he wanted to help out. Frank Oyston, Andrew's father, shared the details with Fox Sports' Ross Jones:

I had reached out to Kyle on Twitter and told him that my son had been bullied on the bus at school and he was having a hard time dealing with it. And Kyle replied, "Hey, I'll come ride the bus with him."

After direct messaging each other for about a month, the two finally came up with a plan for Long to hang out with Andrew.

Oyston's youngest daughter had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's, which was the perfect opportunity for Andrew to have some fun with the Bears lineman:

Long kept the fun day going after the party. The 25-year-old went back to the Oystons' house and played catch with the kids.

Mr. Oyston was blown away by Long's willingness to spend a day with the family, via Jones:

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think it was going to happen, but he followed through. He’s a really good guy. He played games with him and played catch. You don’t expect that to happen nowadays. It really meant a lot.

Simple gestures like that go a long way with fans.

[Kyle Long, h/t For The Win]