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Read Tom Hanks' Heartwarming Letter to the Daughters of Late NFL Legend Ken Stabler

By Antoinette Bueno
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Tom Hanks continues to be a class act.

The 59-year-old Oscar-winning actor recently took the time to write a letter to the daughters of NFL legend Ken Stabler, who died of complications from colon cancer in July. He was 69 years old.

Hanks, a California native, described why he was such a huge fan of Stabler, whom the actor saw when he played for the Oakland Raiders. The typewritten note was in response to Stabler's eldest daughter, Kendra Stabler Moyes, who sent Hanks some memorabilia from her father's estate after hearing he was a huge fan.

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"Your father, with his left-handedness and those two bad knees, displayed a permanent smile of bemusement that said -- win or lose -- 'ain't this fun?'" Hanks recalled. "I really did see in him the honor to be found in playing the game, of using one's God given talent, of taking pleasure in the effort."

"That Ken Stabler came from the likes of Alabama yet played right there in my home town helped me understand the variety found in the USA," he added. "Using a pair of pliers to change the channel on my busted up kids TV (it had a few knobs missing) I would tune in San Diego to see your Dad play, or Shea Stadium to see him take on the Jets -- learning that if you were good enough you could do your thing wherever you wanted."

"I'm honored to wear the fine bit of Stablerwear you sent along and will continue to offer up to anyone who comes my way, and maybe just asks how I ended up where I am, that you just have to throw deep, baby ..." he concluded.

Moyes shared the note in its entirety on Twitter, writing, "It's not every day you get a letter from Tom Hanks. What a stud! So cool of him to reach out. #respect #throwdeep."

In July, Hanks also tweeted a message about his late idol.

"Goodbye Kenny Stabler, QB for the Oakland Raiders, who showed how cool it was to be cool under pressure," he wrote. "Go deep, baby. Hanx."

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This, of course, isn't the first time Hanks has touched someone with his notes. In July, The Sixth Sense actor Haley Joel Osment told the Today show that he kept a handwritten note from the actor -- who played his dad in Forrest Gump -- when Hanks sweetly wrote down his lines for him after director Robert Zemeckis rewrote the last scene in the film in which they wait for his school bus together.

"My parents kept it around and I still have this little piece of film history," Osment said, who was six years old when the film came out in 1994. "He [Hanks] truly is [the nicest man]. He was a great, great first cinema dad."

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