Rudolph plays football for Florida State University. When he was visiting a middle school in Florida one Tuesday, he noticed sixth-grader Leo eating his lunch alone. Rudolph took a couple pieces of pizza and joined Leo at his table.
Leo has autism, a condition that can make it hard to communicate with other people. His mother always worries about him. Two days later, she saw a picture of Rudolph and Leo eating together and it made her so happy that she cried. Then, she shared the picture on the Internet, along with a message about how thankful she was. The story became popular very quickly.
"We just had a great conversation. He started off telling me his name is Leo, telling me how much he loves Florida State. We went from there," said Rudolph. "It was really easy. He had a nice smile on his face. Just a really warm person."
Leo's mother said that middle school can be hard, and she worries about how other kids will treat her son. "Sometimes I'm thankful for his autism. That may sound like a terrible thing to say, but in some ways I think—I hope— it protects him." she said.
"He doesn't seem to notice when people look at him when he flaps(拍打) his hands," she said. "He doesn't seem to notice that he doesn't get invited to birthday parties. And he doesn't seem to mind if he eats lunch alone."
The mother said the photo of Rudolph and Leo's lunch date helped teach people about autism. "The picture speaks more than a thousand words. You can see how far away the rest of the students are, but you can see how engaged Rudolph is with Leo," she added.
"I just wanted to go say hi to the kid, because I saw him eating alone. I didn't even know anybody took a photo of it." Rudolph said he was glad that the story was helping others.
Leo is excited that Rudolph signed his lunch box, and is enjoying all of the attention. "It's been awesome. Everyone was so proud of me," Leo said.
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