Gracie Merrill, a 13-year-old from West Jordan, Utah, was featured in an ESPN Outside the Lines report last month about playing in the Girls Tackle Football League, believed to be the first all-girls tackle league in the country.
On national television, Merrill wore a Peyton Manning No. 18 Broncos jersey while discussing her love for the game.
Soon after the interview aired, her father, Scott Merrill, posted a link to the segment on a Broncos Facebook fan page. And soon after he posted the link, an autographed photo of Manning with a hand-written note to Graice arrived in their mailbox.