"If you think something is impossible, keep trying. If you like it, keep doing it, because you are succeeding."

These are words of wisdom from Joseph "Sepp" Shirey, a 12-year-old boy living with his family in Mechanicsville, Va. Like lots of kids, Sepp eats, sleeps and breathes sports. He's on a football, baseball and swim team, and also dabbles in skiing and basketball. Friends and teammates appointed Sepp "commissioner of neighborhood backyards and playgrounds." Unlike other kids, however, Sepp is living with cerebral palsy.

Now you might be surprised to learn that tackle football is Sepp's first love. He's been playing with friends since he was 5 years old.

"I love the hitting, reading the offense and reacting," he says.

When Sepp was nine, his friend Jack Goleski asked if he wanted to play organized football as a member of the Blue Star Cowboys, an affiliate of the Metro Youth Football League. Sepp said yes.

When I first met him, the physical signs of his CP were noticeable. He walks with an exaggerated limp. His muscle control is good, but not great, and his balance is easily disrupted. While he didn't fall during my visit with him, largely because he was sitting down for most of the time, Sepp falls down multiple times daily; occasionally face first into something unforgiving.

He goes to bed most nights telling stories of his new cuts and bruises, and apologizing for getting blood and grass stains on his clothes. In that way, Sepp is like so many other 12-year-old boys.

When Sepp was three years old, he underwent a neurosurgical procedure called a Selective Dorsal Root Rhizotomy, which aimed to reduce spasticity in his legs. Surgery was followed by strenuous physical therapy six days a week, and a lifetime of inconvenience that prevents him from, among other things, putting on and taking off his shoes. The experiences of a normal school day, which every other kid takes for granted, make Sepp so tired at the end of the day that he often comes home exhausted, covered in blisters on his hands and feet from his crutches. He often comes home sick from dehydration. It’s a grind that Sepp endures every day of his life, and yet, always with a smile that never seems to go away.

What Sepp may lack in physical ability, he more than makes up for with determination, effort, and a positive attitude well beyond his 12 years.

"I wanted to play organized football; it was simply a matter of convincing others that it was a good idea," Sepp says.

As it turns out, it was a great idea, and a story that inspires everyone who knows him, and many of those who don’t.

Mike Goleski has played football his entire life, and has been coaching his son Jack’s teams for a number of years. Jack¸ who has been playing football at school with his other friends and Sepp since they were five, came home from school one day and asked if Sepp could play on the Cowboys.

"Sure, he can be a part of the team," the father said to his eager son.

The reality was Goleski, like most others including the head coach of the Cowboys, T.C. Wilson, was thinking that Sepp would have a role as team manager, not as a player. Of course they wanted him to play, but how could he? What they didn’t realize however, was that Sepp and his dad, Hunter Shirey, had entirely different plans.full story >>

One of college basketball's best players is fighting the good fight against mental illness.

Royce White has led Iowa State to the doorstep of its first NCAA tournament birth in seven years, but it's his battle off the court that is drawing well-deserved attention. White is one of nearly 40 million Americans dealing with an anxiety disorder.

The 20-year-old has been on medication since he was an early teen.

"Anxiety isn’t really something you can measure," White told the Des Moines Register. "That’s why it’s so hard to diagnose, so hard to pinpoint. If I didn’t take my medication, any number of things could happen -- it could affect my mind, and my body. I could get the sweats.

"What anxiety is, is your mind telling your body that there’s a threat, so it produces adrenalin so you can fight off that threat. That could make you do anything, conceptually, but I’m not a dumb individual. I wouldn’t do something off-the-wall like skydive."

White is afraid of flying, but unlike retired broadcaster John Madden, who traveled by bus, he travels by plane with the Cyclones around the Big 12. Royce tells the Des Moines Register he will "ask the flight attendants 10 times if the flight's going to be all right."full story >>

J.K. Rowling said, "It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

A New York woman made all the right choices when she successfully used social media to return a camera full of Super Bowl memories.

The first-grade teacher from Long Island was in Indianapolis to witness the Giants' upset of the Patriots earlier this month when a fellow fan asked her to take a photo of his family with his digital camera. In the excitement of the moment, Mary Ellen McPaul forgot to give the camera back to the random fan -- instead putting it in her purse by mistake.

Once she became aware of her error, the teacher wanted to do the right thing, but she had no idea who the owner of the camera was.

"I was just so sad that this man wasn't going to have photos with his family" McPaul told FOX 59 Indianapolis. "I thought, 'I have to do something.'"full story >>

By Darren Rovell
CNBC.com

January 31 9:29 am: Tweet from @AntonioBrown84: Indianapolis #steelernation talk to meJanuary 31 9:39 am: Tweet from @sdpaladin: @AntonioBrown84 I live in Indy! Let's get lunch! How's 12:30?

It started just like that.

Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown had arrived in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl with some time on his hands. So he told his fans where he was. Seth Paladin, a die-hard Steelers fan, had planned his normal Tuesday. He was about to start his day as a sales representative for home security company ADT. But the fan in him decided to be bold, as he quickly scanned his Twitter timeline before going out. Not expecting much, he tweeted at the Steelers Pro Bowler, with 85,000 followers. He wanted to see him in person.

"When I first tweeted at him, I thought there was a very slim chance that he'd see it," Paladin said. "When he replied, I thought to myself, 'This is crazy.'"

What happened next is the most amazing story of athlete-fan interaction in the short history of social media.

That's a pretty high bar, by the way.

Kevin Durant, in the mood to play flag football during the lockout, was told there was a game at nearby Oklahoma State. He showed up. Chad Ochocinco treated 66 of his Twitter followers to a fancy dinner. Shaquille O'Neal offered tickets to a game for anyone who tagged him in a mall. He gave away 30 tickets that day.

But no professional athlete has ever spent the kind of time with a fan that Antonio Brown spent with Seth Paladin during Super Bowl week.

After a series of replies, direct messages, texts, and calls, Brown eventually invited Paladin to his hotel room. They immediately hit it off. With an open schedule, the two of them headed over to a local gym.

Slideshow: Die-Hard Celeb Sports Fans

There, Brown showed Paladin, a Pittsburgh native, his workout routine. They lifted weights. They swam laps in the pool.

And if the story stopped there, it would have been remarkable. But it was far from over.

That night, Paladin invited Brown to his friend's birthday at the upscale chain, The Capital Grille. Brown, who signed a three-year, $1.29 million contract as a sixth-round draft pick in 2010 and made a second-year minimum of $450,000 this past season, graciously picked up the entire bill full of drinks, appetizers, entrees and dessert.full story >>