After Sunday night’s win against the Denver Broncos, Jason Pierre-Paul was doing a postgame interview with NBC when he started talking about playing for a young boy named Hayden. When he was done it looked like he had tears in his eyes.

As it turned out, his sack dance Sunday night was taught to him by Hayden, a seven-year-old boy battling cancer who visited the Giants last week and obviously made an impact on JPP.

The story goes even deeper than that. There was a bit of a connection between the two. Hayden, who was visiting Giants practice as a guest of the Garden of Dreams Foundation through Madison Square Garden and MSG Networks according to NJ.com, told Pierre-Paul that he sat in his locker and tried on his helmet. Pierre-Paul told him he’d give him his gloves, which were special because he’d lost fingers in an infamous fireworks accident. Hayden told Pierre-Paul he’d lost a toe during his cancer battle.

“Guess what? You’re a survivor,” Pierre-Paul said.

Then came Sunday night, and Pierre-Paul played a great game with three sacks as the Giants pulled off a shocking 23-10 upset of the Denver Broncos. Even in the heat of that game, he still had Hayden and the sack dance they practiced on his mind. And after the game, he made sure to give his new friend a nice shout-out on NBC.

Pierre-Paul was the butt of many jokes after his fireworks accident. It’s impressive how he fought back despite his hand injuries to re-establish himself as one of the top defensive ends in football. Pierre-Paul showed even more about himself with how he befriended a young fan and remembered him on Sunday.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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