Cleveland Browns Good Luck Charm and Super Fan Tom Seipel Has Lost His Battle With Cancer
Cleveland.com- Tom Seipel, the Browns fan battling kidney cancer who flew to Cleveland to see one last game in Week 17, has died. His passing was announced on his Instagram account.
“Hi everyone. This is Tom’s friend, Phil,” the post read. “I wanted to let you know that today Tom’s suffering came to an end and he has entered into Heaven’s gates. He is face to face with his maker. Thank you for loving and supporting my friend as his family through this trying ordeal. #Seipelstrong forever.”
Following a post on Reddit by Seipel announcing he was going into hospice care, Browns fans Rawley Davis and Brian Szabo managed to get a hold of Emily Mayfield, who got a message to Tom from her husband, Baker Mayfield.
A few days before the Week 17 Steelers game, Davis and Szabo came up with a plan to get Seipel to Cleveland to watch the Browns clinch a playoff berth. Seipel, after some reluctance, accepted.
“If I’m going to die freezing my butt off at FirstEnergy Stadium,” Seipel said, “what a way to go out.”
Seipel attended the game with his dad, his friend Phil and Phil’s dad. Mayfield gave them her suite to watch the game so Seipel didn’t have to sit out in the cold. Seipel met Baker Mayfield following the game.
“If there was a good stopping point to the end of the book,” Seipel said the night before, “after this game would be a good point.”
We covered this story back in early January because it kind of flew under the radar when it shouldn't have.
Tom seemed like a real gem.
A man of faith that devoted his life to helping less fortunate people around the globe and damning himself to misery by being a die-hard Browns fan.
Through a good friend, a GoFundMe, and social media, the Baker Mayfield's wife caught wind of his story and stepped up.
Baker gets a lot of shit for being as cocky and outspoken as he is, but he doesn't get enough credit for how much good he's done for the city of Cleveland, a lot of which is behind the scenes and not publicized.
This being one of those stories.
Emily and Tom had become close since that meetup. Talking daily it seems.
Today she took to Instagram to thank Tom for being an inspiration, a good friend, and a great fan.
Godspeed Tom.
Fuck cancer.