Ex-Cougar honors a real father

On this Father's Day, Bryan Kehl gives thanks for his dad. Not the dad that split with Kehl's birth mother before he was born, then left for the NFL.

The father Kehl is celebrating is his other dad. His real dad. The one that adopted him when he was two days old. The one that took buckets of baseballs to the park and pitched to his 10-year-old son until his arm gave out. The one that attended all his games.

The one who stayed up nights when his son was sick or scared or simply wanted someone at his side.

The dad who didn't finish college, but earned a Ph.D. in parenting.

The dad who loved him like his own, because in all the ways that count, he was.

That's the thing about fatherhood. There's the biological stuff, which may or may not matter, and there's the honest-to-carpool-and-camp-out thing. His real dad taught him the eight W's: Work Will Win When Wishy-Washy Wishing Won't.

That's not in the parenting books because Gary Kehl made it up.

"He's the type of dad who didn't just tell us," says Kehl. "We watched him do it as well."

Bryan Kehl is in New York today, following the Giants' mini-camp. He and other rookies will be there for about another week. The former BYU linebacker was drafted in the fourth round by the Super Bowl champions.

You might say football is in his blood. His biological father, whose identity neither Bryan nor Gary and Nancy Kehl knows, is said to have played college football at either Utah or USU a quarter-century ago. When the player's girlfriend became pregnant at 21, she gave Bryan up for adoption.

Gary and Nancy made Bryan part of a family that eventually included three biological children and six adopted children. Some of the kids were white, like the parents, and some were biracial, like Bryan. Didn't matter a bit to Gary and Nancy. They were interested in kids, not colors.

And their son felt it every day of his life.

His parents loved them all equally, unequivocally, teaching them about religion and respect and integrity. "They treated us all the same," says Bryan.

So when Bryan says he's the product of his parents, he means it.

Not the parents who made him, but the ones who made him what he is.

"I never knew what it was like not to have a father. All I've tried to accomplish — scholastically, athletically, spiritually and every other way — I owe to my parents," says Kehl.

That's not to say Kehl harbors ill will toward his biological parents. In fact, he says he's grateful his birth mother put him up for adoption. "Every kid deserves a father and a mother.

"I'm grateful she had the courage to make the tough decision and put me up (for adoption) so I could have a complete family."

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