The big story Sunday in Cleveland was Johnny Manziel’s first career start, but that was far from the coolest thing that happened.
That honor belonged to Army Staff Sgt. Anthony Wagner, who with a little help from the Browns, put LeBron James’ Cleveland homecoming to shame.
Wagner had been serving in Afghanistan and it looked like he wasn’t going to be home for the holidays. His children were set to be honored for their community service work Sunday at the game, and that’s where the first surprise came.
As the children were being honored in front of the capacity crowd, Wagner delivered a message in a video played in the stadium. It was at the end of the video that he unveiled his second surprise of the day.
“There’s no way to describe it, it’s the best feeling in the world, my eyes were just watering before I even got out of the tunnel. I really couldn’t even see them, I just knew they were somewhere around,” Wagner said after the emotional reunion, per FOX 8 in Cleveland.
Wagner had been in Afghanistan for nine months before the surprise return home.
