NFL gives 'once in a lifetime' gift to boy who lost his dad

For Andrew Search and his dad, football was an obsession, a passion, a time to bond. The Giants were their team.

Andrew, 11, and his father even had plans to go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony last summer. But Mitchell Search, who was suffering from colon cancer, was too ill to travel. Instead, Andrew's grandmother took him.

Mitchell Search died of colon cancer in November 2017 at age 59.

Now, Andrew has received a gift he'll always remember from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Hall of Fame President David Baker: Two free tickets to Super Bowl LIII, in memory of his father.

“Thank you so much for this opportunity. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, something I am never going to be able to do again,” said Andrew, in a shout-out to the NFL.

To say Andrew is a fan is an understatement. When his dad gave him football cards, Andrew memorized the players, positions and stats. They spent all day on Sundays watching the game. Odell Beckham Jr. and Eli Manning are personal heroes.

“2014 was the first year I started watching football with my dad,” said Search. “I just followed it from then. That’s where my starting point as a Giants fan became.”

When Andrew and his grandmother Fawnda Genovese went to the 2017 ceremony in Canton, Ohio, Baker took notice of the young football expert and learned that his father was ill.

Then in March, Andrew's mother, Dawn, reached out to Baker to let him know Andrew's father had died.

“I wanted to thank him for having Andrew at the Hall of Fame in 2017," said Dawn. "Andrew is still such a big football fan. He really, really loved the experience of coming down there.”

A few months later, Baker emailed the Millburn family. Andrew was invited to attend all of the 2018 enshrinement activities, which occurred from Aug. 2 to Aug. 5: The ceremony, the football game, the State of the Hall Address, and a Maroon 5 concert.

Sitting with Roger Goodell

NFL legends Randy Moss, Brian Dawkins and Jerry Kramer were among those inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.

During the enshrinement ceremony, Goodell sat next to the boy and asked him if he’d rather have tickets to four Giants games or to the Super Bowl.

Andrew replied: "The Giants are making it to the Super Bowl, so I’ll take the Super Bowl tickets.”

The Super Bowl will be played Feb. 3 in Atlanta.

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The conversation, Andrew said, reminded him of talks he’d had with his dad.

“He [Goodell] took things seriously but in a joking manner. My dad always had that jokish manner but when things needed to be serious, he made them serious,” he said.

The jokes and light-spirted events during enshrinement week also reminded him of bike rides, funny and inappropriate conversations at the dinner table, and Rolling Stones concerts he went to with his dad and his sister Emma, 12.

Emma said that although she and her brother fight sometimes they have been able to put aside their differences and grieve together.

“We needed each other at that point in time. We still do,” Emma said.

Andrew said, “If I felt down, she would make me laugh. It was one of these things where we didn’t like each other..."

Emma interrupted, “But we loved each other.”

Mitchell Search was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in July 2009 at age 50. Andrew was 2½ and Emma 3.

“The kids didn’t know him really before he had cancer,” Dawn said.

Her husband had surgeries and chemotherapy and went into remission. But the cancer came back in late 2016 and Dawn said he couldn’t fight it. “It went downhill very quickly for him.”

“I think it’s really just hitting them that their dad isn’t coming back,” Dawn said, and noted she is proud of the way they are coping with the loss.

This football season, Andrew Search will be rooting for the Giants every Sunday — just like he did with his dad.

Email: kelleher@northjersey.com