The Kansas City Chiefs depend on Leonard Pope for several things on their offense, but one one depends on him more than the boy whose life he saved last summer. The Chiefs tight end recently made headlines when he saved a friend’s drowning son at a party, and now he’s speaking out at a local YMCA to encourage others to learn how to swim.
"I really didn’t have to think about what to do," he said. "I have two kids myself and if it was one of them, I sure would want somebody to hop in and save them."
“Unfortunately, the statistics show that Pope’s lifesaving maneuver is far from an isolated experience,” says the Chiefs official press release. “In fact, more than a quarter of deaths of children ages 1-4 are because of drowning. Yearly, there are more than 3,300 unintentional drownings in the United States. That’s why Pope’s visit at the YMCA was so important to this six-year NFL veteran.”