Former NFL Player To Receive Highest Citizen Honor for Philanthropy
December 21, 2018
Former NFL Player, Steve Gleason will receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can bestow. He will become the first former NFL player to receive the award.
The House of Representatives on Thursday, December 20 gave unanimous passage of legislation S. 2652 to award Gleason, a Washington DC resident who played for the New Orleans Saints from 2000-2006, the Gold Medal.
Gleason was diagnosed with ALS in 2011 and is being honored for his work to help others with the condition.
According to the release from the office of U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), The Stephen Michael Gleason Congressional Gold Medal Act recognizes Gleason for his work through the Gleason Initiative Foundation to provide individuals with neuromuscular diseases or injuries with the assistance they need to thrive, his advocacy for federal legislation ensuring people living with diseases such as ALS have access to speech generating devices, and his leadership in bringing together the single largest coordinated and collaborative ALS research project in the world“It is a true honor to witness Steve Gleason become the first New Orleanian and former NFL Legend to receive the Congressional Gold Medal,” said Saints Owner Gayle Benson.
“Along with his wife, Michel, and everyone at Team Gleason, they have unfailingly confronted ALS with a courageous and unwavering determination. Their tireless work to provide crucial assistance and the latest in technology and services has improved countless people’s quality of living. Steve is leaving a truly indelible mark in American history and we are honored to call him a true New Orleans Saint.”“Through his work to help others who are disabled, Steve Gleason has changed so many lives for the better,” Senator Cassidy said in a statement after the passage of the legislation. “As more members of Congress heard about Steve’s work, the support for this bill only grew. Steve is a hero to many and I’m proud we got this done to honor a great American.”
Previous recipients of the Congressional Gold Medal include Orville and Wilbur Wright, Thomas Edison, Robert Frost, Bob Hope, Walt Disney, Roberto Clemente, Sir Winston Churchill, John Wayne, the 1980 U.S. Summer Olympic Team, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, Ruth and Billy Graham, Frank Sinatra, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus.