They surprised their dad with a trip to the NFC Championship. The video went viral

A short video made the rounds of social media this week. In it, we see a man in a Seattle Seahawks jersey riding in a car. “Why did we come all the way to Seattle?,” he asks, and someone laughs. It was Sunday, January 25, the day of the NFC Championship game between the Seahawks and the LA Rams.

To learn about the backstory of this now viral video, KUOW’s Kim Malcolm talked to University of Washington graduate and UCLA medical school student Irvin Garcia.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: The man in the video is your father. Tell us what was going on that day on your trip to Seattle.

Irvin Garcia: I told him we're going to go to a bar. And then we were getting closer and closer to Lumen Field, and I just pulled out my phone. I didn't say anything, and it just clicked. We were going to go inside the stadium and watch the football game. And that's when he got all emotional.

We see his reaction in the video, when he realizes what's happening. How did you absorb that in that moment?

I realized he was getting really emotional about being there. It was emotional for me as well, seeing my dad in that state. He's not someone that's been vulnerable for much of my childhood and upbringing. I knew this was something that was very meaningful to him. And in a way, I kind of saw him kind of being a child again, and that was a beautiful experience to see.

My dad's someone who, growing up, I felt like he didn't show many emotions. He grew up in a household where this type of vulnerability is not something that you show. Being able to see him in that situation where he's really emotional over this sport means a lot to me, because it almost feels like he's kind of reliving his childhood, or living a childhood that he kind of missed out on due to his circumstances, just having to work his whole life. And so, it was just something that was so meaningful for me and the rest of my family.

There is a backstory to all this. Your dad was very sick recently. He was hospitalized. Tell us what happened.

Not too long ago, my dad had a stroke. Right after we watched our first football game in person, we went to Lumen Field, and just a couple days after that my dad had a stroke. As a medical student, seeing what happened and hearing about it when I got the news, I was very well aware that this is something that has a very high mortality rate, and that can completely change someone's life. I wasn't sure how big the disability was going to be.

While we were at the hospital, he couldn't walk, and he couldn't move the left side of his body. We were just a couple of blocks away from Lumen Field, and I remember just looking at it and thinking to myself, I don't know if we're ever going to be able to do this again.

As time went on, we did a lot of physical therapy for my dad, and thankfully, he's recovered a lot. He's able to walk now. And as the season went on with the Seahawks, it was amazing to see they made it to the NFC Championship. I saw that as an opportunity that just seemed like a perhaps once in a lifetime thing with everything that happened. It just made me, you know, not take for granted the time I have with him.

Well, you set the bar really high, Irvin, for kids everywhere wanting to do something special for their parent. Can you tell me a little bit more about why you wanted to do this for your dad?

He’s someone who's sacrificed so much for me to be where I am. He's always worked the hardest jobs. A lot of my childhood. He wasn't really around because he was working. The time I got to spend with him was working. I would go out to the fields. We used to work as migrant farmworkers. So, a lot of the time I actually got to spend with my dad was just working. And I felt like we didn't really have many things outside of work that we bonded over, or really talked about, or even spent time together.

During 2013-14, when the Seahawks were doing really well, my brother was also playing high school football, and my dad was always around for that. In a way, that was our thing outside of work that we got to do together. As time has gone by and I've gone through medical school, I've seen how quickly life can be taken away from someone, and how quickly life can change, and how things that we have can be taken for granted.

Then this whole thing that happened with my dad and his stroke just made me want to appreciate my time with him and my family members and all my loved ones a lot more. And I want to be able to give my dad these experiences that he never really had. It's something that's a high priority of mine. Anything can change at any given moment, so I want to make sure that I'm able to give back to him and the rest of my family.

What was it like being there in the stadium with him and your brother? Is there a moment that stands out for you amidst all that pandemonium?

Oh, man, being there was so cool. Lumen Field is something different. I don't think I could put into words how to explain what that experience is like. It's just so cool seeing so many people there cheering on one team and just feeling united. You watch the news all the time, and it just seems like the whole world is divided, and you see this, and all these people come together. It's just so cool. There were just random people giving my dad a hug. That was one moment that stood out to me. Just some random dude just started hugging my dad after we officially won the game.

Do you remember anything about what your dad might have said to you on the way home?

He just kept talking about the game, going over big plays that happened. Actually, one thing he did admit to me was, “Oh, I'm not gonna lie. I was pretty nervous at some point in the fourth quarter. I kind of thought we might lose this.”

He wasn't the only one!

Exactly, but thankfully we came out on top. So that was awesome.

This story, it's making the rounds. A lot of people know about you and your dad now.

A lot of people have messaged me and have told me how much they relate to it. A lot of people have a similar relationship with their family members, where football is something they use to bond, and a lot of people felt very touched by that. Several people have told me something along the lines of, “Oh, I wish I could have done that for my dad. We always watched football together, and he always wanted to go to a game, and he never got to do it.” So, seeing this through our video brings a lot of people joy, and it's a beautiful thing to see. And, yeah, and something that I wasn't really expecting.

Is there anything else that you think people should know about you and your family?

We're just a family that comes from very, very hard work. Everything that we have, we've worked really hard for it. My dad taught me at a very young age that if I want something, I have to go out there and get it. And that's been my entire journey, through medical school as well. Being the first in my family to go to college and then medical school.

Matter of fact, my parents didn't even get to go to high school. And so this was something that I had to navigate on my own. I remember my dad telling me, I can't teach you things regards to your school. My education is not at the level that I could help you out at all, but I can teach you hard work, and if you apply that to whatever you want in life, you can have it. And that's the attitude I've had, and that's my approach to everything, and that's why I'm here.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.