Star support: Danny Keefe (second left) and his friend Tommy Conney, who got his football team to stand up against Keefe’s bullies, getting a video message from New England Patriot’s quarterback Tom Brady while on The Ellen Degeneres Show.

THE Bridgewater Badgers might be a tiny peewee football team, but their actions have made a big impact around the world.

The inspiring story of how team quarterback Tommy Cooney, 11, organised the team to stand up for their bullied six-year-old “water coach” Danny Keefe, who suffers from a speech impediment, warmed the hearts of millions after a news piece on the story deservingly went viral.

One of those millions included talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who flew Cooney, Keefe and his mother Jennifer from Bridgewater, Massachusetts to Los Angeles to be on her show.

Naturally, DeGeneres had a surprise for them
– a recorded message from superstar quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, the boys’ favourite team. Brady said: “Hi Danny and Tommy. I hope you guys are having fun in LA with my friend Ellen. I heard about your story and I can’t imagine how proud your parents must be. Danny, people still tease me about what I wear, but I never listen to them, so keep wearing what makes you feel best.

“And Tommy, I love your leadership and how you stood up for Danny, and I applaud the entire Bridgewater Badgers team for participating. I hear you’re both big Patriot fans, so I’d love to give you guys some tickets to our regular-season finale against Buffalo in a few weeks, and give you some pre-game field passes, too.”

It was around then that the kids’ jaws dropped. But that wasn’t it. Brady added that Patriots owner Robert Kraft will also give the entire Badgers team tickets to The Hall at Patriots Place, the team’s museum.

In case you haven’t heard the full story, it all started when Cooney heard from a friend that Keefe, who studies in a different school, was being bullied because of his speech impediment (the result of a brain hemorrhage suffered as a baby) and the way he dressed. Keefe went to school in a suit and tie every day.

“It looks very good on you. I don’t blame you for wanting to wear a suit and tie,” said DeGeneres. “I don’t know why every kid doesn’t wear a suit and tie to school.”

Jennifer told Degeneres how Danny would come to her room at night crying after being bullied at school.
“A few times, little kids would come to his face and say: ‘Why don’t you talk? Why can’t you talk?’ And other times they would take his hat off and throw mulch at him, so it made him really sad.”

Cooney decided to rally the Badgers to stand up for Danny, by all wearing suits and ties on a special “Danny Appreciation Day”.
“Boy, that’s amazing, for someone to stand up. It was really, really brave for you to speak up,” said DeGeneres, who also spoke to Danny about how she too was held back a year in kindergarten, to which he replied incredulously, “You too?”

Danny spoke mostly through his mother, but during a backstage recap he was asked how it felt to have his story explode all over the world, and he had the perfect answer: “Really, really, really, really awesome and crazy!”