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Bradley Pinion’s punts save the Bucs while changing vets’ lives, one shelter dog at a time

The punter and his wife started Punts for Pups, which pays the adoption fee for shelter dogs for veterans.
 
Published Nov. 4, 2021|Updated Nov. 5, 2021

TAMPA — Bradley Pinion is summoned whenever there is trouble. As the Bucs’ punter, his job is to hit the re-set button, change the vantage point and allow his team to start anew.

He’s also a dog lover, and three of his four pets were adopted from an animal shelter.

When those two passions merged, there was purpose.

Pinion and his wife, Kaeleigh, started Punts for Pups two years ago. For every punt that is downed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, the Pinions sponsor the adoption of a dog in the Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center. This year, they have partnered with Sierra Delta, which sponsors the adoption of dogs for veterans around the U.S.

“They have what they call life buddies, because a lot of times these veterans come back from war and they’re messed up mentally, and sometimes having something to care for or to help them get along on the bad days is what gets them by,” Pinion said.

“Studies show dogs coming out of shelters are 70 percent more anxious in shelters than anywhere else. Everything comes together. You have humans who need dogs and dogs that need humans, and you kind of push them together and it works perfectly.”

Finding a purpose

BJ Ganem, the CEO/President of Sierra Delta, which places service dogs for veterans, is pictured with his dog, Loki. [ Courtesy of B.J. Ganem ]

BJ Ganem is a decorated Marine combat veteran who started Sierra Delta: Service Dogs for Veterans in 2018. Ganem knows first-hand how canine companionship can change lives or save one.

It saved his.

Ganem lost one of his legs in 2004 during combat in Iraq. A couple years later, he went through one of his darkest times. He was facing a divorce, DUI charges and bankruptcy that forced him to consider short-selling his house.

“When I was really close to doing the most desperate thing a human can do, I didn’t because of this old English bulldog that had no training and no special talents other than he got slobber into places you thought it was physically impossible to get slobber in and clear a room with his farts or eat a piping hot pizza off a table that was supposed to be my dinner,” Ganem said.

“He had no talent. But I knew if I checked out — and I have great friends and family and I love my kids; there was no reason for me to be in that situation — but it was that dog that I knew if I did that, no one would want him. He would end up in a shelter, and he would die. That was enough purpose for me to pull my own head out of my butt and figure it all out. Which is what we all need to do.”

While Pinion’s Punts for Pups initiative picks up the adoption fee, Sierra Delta’s Life Buddy program provides professional dog-training grants to veterans and monitors engagement through the gamification of an app and incentivizes interaction with a variety of rewards.

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Get Joy, a dog food company, has partnered with Seirra Delta to donate $500 for every punt Pinion nails inside the 20-yard line towards the training of a dog and its owner.

“It’s just like the Starbucks app,” Ganem said. “They walk their dog, they get points. With their points, we’re talking to other companies, you have all these veteran discounts. We said, well, let’s have them earn it with what they can do with their dog.”

Pinion got the idea from former Bills placekicker Stephen Hauschka, who used to sponsor the adoption of a dog for every field goal made at home.

“It’s just a way to spread joy, honestly,” Pinion said. “That’s all I’m trying to do. I’m a huge believer in Christ, and I believe part of my mission as a football player is to give back. That’s why God put me in the position he put me in. I’m affecting dogs, which is something I love, and affecting humans. I feel like it’s a great combination. You can’t be sad when you come home and you have four tails wagging in your face.”

Healing each other

Pinion’s first dog is a purebred Labrador Retriever, and the others are Lab mixes. The smallest weighs only 70 pounds and has only three legs. “He started out with four and had a tragic accident,” Pinion said. “We’re not sure what happened, but we got him when he had three.

“And his first year of life, he got put under nine times for different surgeries, just because he had part of his femur that was left and it ended up breaking. If he had four (legs), we wouldn’t be able to keep up. He’s full of energy.”

That’s the thing about these dogs. Very often, they are in as much need of healing as their new owners.

Ganem says his new pup, Loki, was locked in a cage for a year and arrived to his home with high anxiety.

“Naturally, it takes time and effort for trust to develop,” Ganem said. “We subscribe to the three-day, three-week, three-month routine to help that the dog and its owner understand this is a forever dog.”

Creating a bond

Friend got Molly, a Golden Retriever mix from Hoovers Hause All Dog Rescue. She had been abandoned after delivering a litter of pups that were taken from her shortly after birth. [ Photo from video (YouTube/Sierra Delta) ]

Mark Friend, 45, left the Marines in 1999 and didn’t know that, as a vet, he was eligible for a Life Buddy. His injuries occurred long after his military service.

He was tossing trash into a garbage truck in Ixonia, Wis., on Jan. 5, 2013. A young woman who didn’t scrape her windshield well enough that morning turned a corner, and the sun was in her eyes. She didn’t see Friend or the garbage truck until her car pinned him, severing his left leg just above the knee.

“My right leg is trash. When I have my prosthetic, my prosthetic is basically my good leg,” Friend said. “My right leg is there for show. I have to wear an orthotic brace and a prosthetic in order to walk. I’ve had 40 surgeries in the last eight years.

“I was dead for 15 minutes. They said when the medflight hit the top of the hospital, I coded. It took 15 minutes to get my heart beating again. So they cut me from armpit to armpit and put a catheter in there, because I was losing so much blood.”

Mark Friend spent 68 days in the hospital and lost his left leg above the knee after a woman drove her car into his garbage truck, pinning him against the vehicle and severing his left leg, in 2013. [ Photo from video (YouTube/Sierra Delta) ]

Friend spent 68 days in the hospital. He met Ganem when they went to the same prosthetist.

Years passed, but Friend realized he needed some help. “I wasn’t putting as much attention to what I needed for myself,” he said. “As time progressed and I got older, it got wierder and I developed anxiety and depression and stuff like that. That’s when I reached out to BJ and said, ‘What’s the story with this? Is this something I can get involved in?’ He’s like, ‘Absolutely.’”

Friend got Molly, a Golden retriever mix from Hoovers Hause All Dog Rescue. She had been abandoned after delivering a litter of pups that were taken from her shortly after birth. Half of her adoption fee was paid by Pinion and Punts for Pups.

A grant from Punts for Pups helped pay for Mark Friend's adoption of Molly, a 2-year-old Golden Retriever mix. Also pictured are Friend's sons, Bryce and Jacob. [ Photo from video (YouTube/Sierra Delta) ]

The two are still in the process of bonding. Friend says Molly didn’t know how to play. She couldn’t fetch. There was a lot to teach her.

“We both have a shattered past,” Friend said. “Like, me and Molly, it’s still kind of a chess match between the two of us. You’re not going to make that bond right way. It takes a while. It’s a matter of how you work through it, and at the end of the day, dogs only want to do one thing, is make their owner happy.”

Friend says he still has phantom pain in the limb he lost in the accident. That might be when he appreciates Molly most.

“You can bite your tongue, grin and bear it, scream as hard as you can or cry,” he said. “It’s like lighting your leg on fire, putting it in a bear trap, freezing it and stabbing it with a bunch of needles all at the same time.

“One day I was starting to yell. I was like, ‘Owie!, Owie!’ Maybe it sounded like ‘Molly.’ But regardless, she came to me and she did her best. She tried to put her nose in there and comfort me.”

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