Along with the other students in his class at Newton Parrish Elementary School, 7-year-old Baylen Woosley was assigned to write a personal bucket list after reading Dr. Suess’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.” Baylen’s list included some fairly easily achievable goals, such as getting a new dog and going to Holiday World. Also on his bucket list was a dream of meeting New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas — arguably, one of the harder bucket list goals to accomplish.
The closest Baylen had ever gotten to Thomas was wearing the same jersey number as the Saints player for his flag football team. Little did Baylen realize at the time, he would soon get to mark the dream of meeting Thomas off his bucket list.
Baylen’s mother, Rachel, read through the list her son had brought home from school, noticing that two of her son’s bucket list goals included meeting Thomas and another Saints player, quarterback Drew Brees. Rachel was a little skeptical anything would come from it, but she decided to tweet a picture of Baylen’s bucket list and share it with the NFL player.
“He had liked a couple of our pictures in the past,” Rachel said.
Rachel didn’t know until a few hours later, but her tweet had gone viral after receiving a response from Thomas. He asked Rachel to DM (direct message) him with her contact information.
“DM number on social media, I will FaceTime him tomorrow. Let’s get #4 checked off,” the tweet read. Thomas followed his tweet with a smiley face, Saints symbol and heart emojis.
“Everybody else saw it before me,” Rachel laughed. “I gave him my phone number, and we waited by my phone. He was a little late getting to us. We told him we were waiting, and he said he was stuck in traffic, but that he’d call us in about 20 minutes.”
And, 20 minutes later, Rachel and Baylen received their long-awaited FaceTime call from Thomas. Rachel recorded the entire experience on video while her son chatted with the NFL player.
“My other son was going to try and talk to him, but I think he was in shock,” Rachel said. “The first thing Baylen said was, ‘Michael Thomas, hello.’”
Rachel said Thomas called Baylen his “little bro” and, even more encouraging, he told Baylen that if he ever had any questions about anything, he could reach out via text.
“We have his phone number saved. He asked Baylen to send him highlights of him playing flag football. He also said the next time he calls our number, he’d have a surprise for Baylen,” Rachel said. “At first we thought maybe it would be tickets to a game. Then we thought maybe he’d let Baylen meet Drew Brees because that had been on his bucket list too.”
Rachel said what Thomas did for her son was an amazing thing — something she never expected out of a busy professional athlete. Rachel said she’s talked to several people about what a great influence Thomas has been on her son’s life — now, even moreso.
“He went out of his way to pay attention to my son,” Rachel said. “For him to take the time to make a 7-year-old’s day is beyond me.”
