Patriots defensive back Cody Davis has been gaming with patients at Boston Children's Hospital since he arrived in New England in 2021.
Last week, he finally was able to do it in person.
"That was kind of the dream was to have a big event or in-person events," Davis said at the hospital last Wednesday.
"We had kind of planned for and had that on the horizon but didn't know if it was gonna come to fruition or not. Being able to be here today and do an in-person event was amazing."
Davis started an initiative called Cody's Gamers his first season with the Patriots.
Looking for a way to give back to his new community while working around the COVID-19 pandemic, he began playing video games with kids in the hospital on Twitch in order to brighten their days a bit.
If Davis couldn't physically be there in the hospital, this was the next best thing.
With help from the Patriots Foundation, he was able to throw an in-person video game tournament at Helix eSports to benefit more than 60 children in foster care last May.
Still, as soon as Boston Children's Hospital was able to lift COVID-19 restrictions, visiting the patients in person was the ultimate goal.
"Cody's Gamers started out of COVID-19 and not being able to access the hospitals and make these visits face-to-face," Davis said. "We've had a blast playing over zoom and switch online and getting the reactions of these kids. Now to see them see them in person, see them face-to-face, it just makes it even more special."
Davis visited with four patients, bringing them gift bags, answering their questions about football, and of course, playing some video games.
"They asked me a lot of great questions," Davis said.
"They did their homework, a lot of true Patriots fans here, gave me some hard questions. All fun and positive stuff, and getting to play some video games just capped it all off."
