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Eli Griffith was sitting in a green room in the bowels of the Javits Center in Manhattan on the first day of Fanatics Fest waiting anxiously with his family.
The Griffith family (father Joe, mother Jamie, and sister Ava) had been waiting all day for Eli to meet his favorite athlete, the one whose name appeared on his Michigan Wolverines and New England Patriots jerseys.
Tom Brady.
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Eli Griffith met his idol, legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady, at Fanatics Fest as part of the Fanatics and Make-A-Wish partnership. (Fans/Make a wish)
Pak Gazette Digital was able to speak with Eli and his family before meeting Brady as part of Fanatics and Make-A-Wish’s partnership, which continues to deliver once-in-a-lifetime moments. Eli was “totally” nervous after being asked about meeting his idol, but also felt there was a “mutual connection” due to his roots in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Brady’s stardom skyrocketed with the Wolverines before achieving the “GOAT” status Eli noted in the NFL.
“As the day goes on, it’s more and more surreal. It’s like this is the moment it’s happening, and I just imagine him walking in the door,” Eli said.
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Finally the moment came when Brady opened that door and the family shared the quality time they had been waiting for all day.
Brady sat down with Pak Gazette Digital after the meeting, where Eli, who is already showing off his journalism skills in high school, had some questions to ask the legendary quarterback.
“He didn’t want to be a journalist. He said, ‘I’m a journalist!’ I said, ‘Sure, go ahead,'” Brady said, smiling. “He had seven questions for me, and a lot of them were fun. He definitely put a lot of time and thought into it, and asked a lot of good questions. Some of them I’d never been asked before.”
Tom Brady attends Fanatics Fest NYC 2026 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City on July 16, 2026. (John Nacion/Getty Images for fans)
A candid interview, some autographs, and a reunion with the whole family, Brady made Eli’s wish come true in the best way. But the Griffith family should know that Eli’s story also serves as inspiration for Brady.
“When I was a player, we did a lot of that at football training camp and had a lot of big wishes over the years,” Brady explained. “I just love being able to impact people’s lives in a positive way. A lot of these people face challenging situations: families and kids. But they have the brightest spirits and the biggest hearts, and it’s just amazing to meet them, to be inspired by them. They think they’re being inspired by us; I think it’s actually the other way around.”
At age 14, Eli was diagnosed with an unusual heart condition. He had dilated cardiomyopathy on one side of the heart and non-compacted ventricular cardiomyopathy on the other side. It was a rare genetic mutation that went unnoticed until he was a teenager.
As a result, Eli needed a heart transplant at CS Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.
Eli Griffith received a heart transplant after a genetic mutation was found when he was 14 years old. Eli, in a good mood at the hospital, shows off his Tom Brady Michigan cards. (Joe Griffith)
During his hospital stay, Brady was shown a photo of Eli with a stack of trading cards from his days at Michigan spread out across his chest, which Brady called “pretty impressive.”
And while Brady was an inspiration, so was the entire Wolverines football team as Eli and his family struggled to overcome their situation.
“The Michigan football team really stepped up when he was in the hospital. The players came and visited him,” Joe Griffith said. “Charles Woodson yelled. Somehow we had a connection through Jim Harbaugh, and we got a phone message from Harbaugh and the Chargers punter. [JK Scott]. In it [Michigan] locker room, the players made a short voice message to Eli. All this kept his spirits high. He kept us excited about things, like after his surgery, these three freshmen would come from the team and visit him afterwards. “This whole thing had a lot of ups and downs, but compared to the experiences that a lot of people have, our lowest points weren’t as low as they could have been.”
It was the ultimate moment for the Griffith family when they spent time with Brady, but it only continued on the floor of Fanatics Fest after his performance. Eli was right next to Brady tossing trading card packs into Tom Brady’s CardVault, while everyone had a front-row seat to see Brady dunking one of his all-time favorite teammates, Rob Gronkowski, in a dunk tank filled with Raising Cane’s sauce.
Todd Graves, Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady attend Fanatics Fest NYC 2026 at the Jacob Javits Center on July 16, 2026 in New York City. (Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for fans)
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The experience of a lifetime for a family that has been through struggles, but has never wavered in spirit and hope.
“There are a lot of people who go deep in life and we all face our own unique challenges and he’s a great kid. What a great spirit,” Brady said.
