Heroes

Just pre-ordered the book One Step at a Time: A Young Marine's Story of Courage, Hope, and a New Life in the NFL, which will be released on September 30th, written by Josh Bleill.

Watch Josh on the Colbert Report on Thursday night, Sept 9th, at 11:30 on Comedy Central.

Josh is an old friend from high school, who lost both legs in a roadside blast in Iraq; a blast that killed two of his fellow servicemen. His story is truly one of courage and inspiration.

I've not seen Josh much since high school. But I remember him as a kind-hearted, caring person who was nice to everyone and had a great sense of humor. He was voted "Best Personality" in our senior yearbook (a well-deserved title). I remember when I heard about his accident -- its one of those mental images burned in my mind. It was October 2006, I was driving to the Y to take Travis to his Pee-Wee Tumbling class. My cell phone rang, it was another old friend from high school, Dan, calling to pass along the news. Dan was one of Josh's very close friends, so he was quite shaken. At that time, we didn't know much, other than it was a severe accident and others had been killed. I followed his recovery on the blog that his sisters created.

Its such an inspiration to see how he has taken this tragic event and turned it into such a positive message of hope and strength.

Read a recent article about Josh's story here.