New York Giants wide receiver, Victor Cruz, wrote messages on his cleats and gloves to honor 6-year-old Jack Pinto, one of the 20 young victims gunned down at Sandy Hook elementary last Friday.

Pinto’s family said that the young Giants fan idolized Cruz so much, that they decided to bury his body in Cruz’s No. 80 jersey. When word spread on Twitter that Cruz was one of Pinto’s favorite football stars, the NFL player immediately reached out to the boy’s family on the phone to offer his condolences and to do something special for the fallen fan.

“I was in the hotel and as I was talking to [his family], I was fighting back tears. You could hear everybody in the background crying as well. It was tough to listen to,” Cruz told the New York Daily News.