KANSAS CITY, Mo. Chrystal Thomas was never surprised when she saw Mecole Hardman free her students from the wires and tubes that tethered them to a mostly sedentary existence.
It didnt surprise her to see Hardman ease into one of her classrooms rocking chairs and pull one of her students up with him.
She smiles now, retelling the stories of those little moments.
Few students at Elbert County Middle School have interacted with her special needs students with such ease and confidence.
But Hardman was a natural, displaying his gift for working with the special needs community since he began escorting them at the countys yearly pageant as a sixth grader.
Hardman is a lot of things to a lot of people.
Son, brother, football star, wide receiver, Chiefs second-round draft pick.
To the special needs students in Elbert County, Ga., though, Mecole Hardman is just their friend.
Through his work with Friends Helping Friends, a local organization that partners students with their special needs counterparts, Hardman has formed a lifelong bond with a group of people who dont care that he became the Chiefs first draft pick a couple months ago. Or that he can fly, with a 4.33-second time in the 40-yard dash. Or that hell be sharing a field with the NFL MVP this fall.
They care that he cares about them. That he spent nearly all of his free afternoons with them, rocking them in rocking chairs or going with them on field trips to Turner Field and the Fox Theater.
While most people define Hardman for what he can do on a field, the special needs community in Elbert County knows him best for what he does off of it and thats what matters most.
Those kids, they dont see me as Mecole the football guy: Oh, hes in the league, or, Hes doing good, Hardman said. They just see me as Mecole, the loving guy. They just see me for me, as myself.
Falling in love with Kendra Turman was easy.
A girl about Hardmans age with a big smile and a word for everyone, Kendra was a magnetic personality in Thomas class for students with moderate disabilities at Elbert County Middle School.
The two became fast friends, and it didnt take long for Kendra to develop her own term of endearment for Hardman: friancee.
