Before he left the New York Giants, running back Brandon Jacobs received a nice gift from a concerned young fan. Six-year-old Joseph Armento sent the now-former Giant $3.36 when he found out that the team said it could no longer afford to keep Jacobs.
Though Jacobs ended up leaving the team and signing with the San Francisco 49ers, he made sure to repay Armento’s kindness before he left town. The 6-foot-4, 266 pound NFL player took the boy and his younger brother to a Jump On It bounce house in Boontown, N.J., spending hours jumping and playing with the boys, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Jacobs had originally contacted Armento’s mother, Julie, to arrange a meeting before he moved his family to the Bay Area, The Bee reported. They had originally thought about Chuck E. Cheese, but ultimately decided on the quieter setting of the bounce house. Jacobs brought along his five-year-old son, Brayden.
“He told me he really wanted to get out there with the kids,” Julie Armento told The Bee. “He really wanted to enjoy it, and he did. It was amazing.”
Jacobs said he enjoyed the encounter, telling The Bee:
“It was just us in the whole place and we were just going room to room – just bouncing and flipping all over the place, hitting each other with balls, sweating, our shirts filthy. We were just dirty, stinky boys, you know?”
Before the outing ended Jacobs had one more thing to give to Armento, People magazine reported —a $5 bill.
“He had some interest in there just for being a good kid,” Jacobs told People.