Brendan Fevola broke down in tears on Thursday after hearing the heartbreaking way a boy was bullied following his father’s tragic death.
The former AFL star, 43, was overcome with emotion upon hearing young boy Ben’s struggles from his devastated mother Sarah on The Fox’s radio show, Fifi, Fev & Nick.
Sarah, who is from Melbourne, revealed that her son Ben has been struggling with bullying at school after his father’s tragic death from cancer.
She said his classmates have been cruelly using his father’s death to tease him, with the heartbreaking story reducing Brendan to tears.
‘Ben goes to school every day and looks forward to playing basketball with his friends at lunchtime. But recently, over the last year or so, he’s been picked on by some of the other kids. They’re actually picking on him over his dad dying,’ Sarah explained.
‘They basically tease him – or sledge, in a way – about his dad. Like, “Oh, at least I’ve got a dad”, or “I’m going to go home, and my dad is going to be there today”.’
A visibly emotional Fevola couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
‘I’m choked up a little bit here,’ he said.
‘That could possibly be the worst thing you could say to a kid. To pick on a kid who’s lost his dad to cancer… I don’t know what I would do as a parent.
‘The poor kid has to deal with it anyway, and he knows he doesn’t have a dad, but to reminded of it with kids who he plays basketball… I don’t know what I would have done if I was a kid.’
The panel then invited Ben to be part of their Underdogs initiative, which sees kids who have been left out of sports due to bullying and health problems form Aussie Rules and basketball teams.
The Underdogs footy team played a curtain-raiser for the Carlton vs Port Adelaide clash at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium back in July, with an Underdogs basketball side set to play at halftime of the Sydney Kings vs Melbourne United National Basketball League game at John Cain Arena on Thursday night.
‘We would love to give Ben a beautiful, fabulous memory of being part of our Underdogs. Is this something Ben would love to do?’ Fifi asked.
‘Oh, definitely! He loves basketball, it’s his big outlet,’ Sarah replied.
Fevola recently revealed a brutal injury saw him taken to the emergency room after starring in his park footy team’s grand final in September.
The former Carlton and Brisbane forward laced up the boots in the Diamond Valley 35s decider, booting five goals in his team’s dominant 70-point win over Williamstown.
However, the victory took a toll, with Fevola left bleeding from an open wound from surgery to remove a mole from his back.
‘It was a bad one. They got it all. I had eight stitches in my back and the doctor said I wasn’t allowed to do any sport.
‘I didn’t tell her I was playing in the Grand Final on Sunday, so I thought I’d run the gauntlet. And yeah, I had a bit of a sore back throughout the game.
‘I go, oh, I’ll have a quick shower, so I got all my footy stuff out of the bag and I go, oh God, my backs a bit sore! I pulled out my jumper and on my ‘5’ the top half of the 5 was just all blood. I go, oh, is this (blood)?
‘I got in the shower and ripped it off… I looked in the mirror and there’s a massive, big hole in my back.
‘I go, “ARGH! I’ve got a hole in my back,” and they’re (Fev’s family) like, “Don’t go in the shower, you need to go to emergency straight away, it’ll get infected,” and I’m like, “Can I just wait for my Uber Eats to come? Cause I’m hungry”…. Alex is like, “Go to Emergency! It’s open … you can’t have (your back) open.”‘
