A Letter to My Autistic Son

The post below is a heartwarming letter from Rico Cannon to his son on his 9th birthday. Rico shares his experiences as that father of a son with autism and how raising Cameron inspired him to give back.

Dear Cameron,

I remember the call like it was yesterday. I was washing my truck when your Meme called and said, “Your son is on the way.” I rushed to my house to get the clothes I wanted you to wear after you were born, along with your NFL football. Automatically, I was a proud Dad from the start.

You were born 9 years ago today on April 22, 2005. Ironically, the NFL draft was the next day. Football at that time was fresh in my mind, so I can’t lie…I called you my First Round Pick because I knew you had a gift that was different from the average child. You had the long legs, muscular body and hands of greatness all in one. Your smile was like that of child model ready for the cover of some magazine. At least in my eyes, because you are my son.

Everything you did as a child was so above average when I look back. You crawled, you walked, you ran and you talked all before you were even a year old. You were born to change the world in some way. As months passed, our time together became less, but nevertheless I was still as in love with you as I am today. Shortly afterwards, I noticed a change in your behavior and social interactions, but I didn’t think much of it. I figured you were just being a child.

I will never forget the day I got the call from your uncle from New York after his visit to South Carolina that previous weekend. You were around 16 months old at this time. He said, “Rico I am not sure how I can tell you this, but I observed some behaviors with Cam this weekend. I noticed how he had a fixation with some things and that he wouldn’t let go of the leaf he was playing with. He appears to have some tendencies of autism. I think you should look further into this.”

At the time, I had only heard about autism, but I immediately thought to...