TAMPA, Fla. -- Four months ago, 9-year-old Jhorden Eberhart was in a hospital intensive care unit fighting for his life. On Friday, he got to catch a touchdown pass from his hero, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston, and meet his Bucs teammates.
Eberhart has sickle cell anemia, a group of disorders impacting red blood cells that causes them to be shaped abnormally -- like a sickle or crescent shape rather than circular -- impacting blood flow. He's been living with the disorder his whole life.
"It's like normal and then all a sudden, it's not," his mother Brittney said.