COLUMBUS, Ohio — While Ohio State football players are preparing for the rivalry game Saturday against Michigan, they are also giving back to the local community.

What You Need To Know

  • OSU position groups visit The James ahead of every home games

  • Special teams got a chance to visit patients ahead of the Michigan game

  • Players said the visit added more perspective during a chaotic week of preparation 

It’s not easy to spend time in the hospital during the holiday season, but that’s exactly what patients at The James Cancer Center are doing.

And for many of those patients, they can look out their window and see Ohio Stadium down below. But on Fridays before home games, Ohio State players make sure the patients know they’re rooting for them.

The players said visiting the patients made their day. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

The tradition started back when Woody Hayes was the head coach, he would visit patients at the hospital ahead of home games. The tradition began again about four years ago, and now a different position group spends their Friday mornings ahead of home games with some of the Buckeyes biggest fans at The James.

On Friday morning, it was the special teams players — punters, kickers and long snappers. They shared more about themselves, asked for score predictions, took pictures and signed autographs. For the players, they said it was a great reminder of all that’s important.

Punter Nick McLarty signs a football for a patient. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

“We get caught up in the Woody a lot, like we’re always here day in and day out," John Ferlmann, Ohio State's long snapper, said. "Getting out in the community you don’t really realize the impact you have on people. And seeing that first hand, I think that’s eye opening. It’s just exciting, it adds some reverence to the game and just makes you realize how much people love it and how important it is to them. It’s a great reminder to go out there and have a great game and do it all for Columbus.”

“Definitely makes us feel really blessed, speaking for myself it makes me feel extremely blessed," Jayden Fielding, OSU's kicker, said. "Those people are put into a tough situation, they’re really true warriors, they fight every day. It was amazing to go see them and help support them in their journey.”

One of the players' favorite parts of the morning was when the players asked each patient for a score prediction of the game tomorrow. Of course, all of them predicting an OSU win — the players favorite prediction was a OSU win of 56-6. The players said as much as they brightened the patients day, the patients also made these players days.