How Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Chris Godwin helps veterans get service dogs – Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blog

TAMPA, Fla. – Flags will fly. Cannons will fire. Fireworks will erupt.

The song “A Pirate’s Life for Me” will play over and over, unable to drown out the noise of nearly 66,000 screaming fans as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-3) take on the New York Giants (3-6) on Monday Night Football at Raymond James Stadium (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN).

If things go according to plan, Bucs wide receiver Chris Godwin will find the end zone and look up to see two Army veterans — Rebecca Stephens, 36, and Carlos Cruz, 46 — and their canine companions cheering in the stands, relishing a moment and a life they never thought possible if not for the generosity of Godwin’s family and others.

Stephens and Cruz are guests of the Team Godwin Foundation and recipients of service dogs from K9s For Warriors, a nonprofit that rescues dogs from high-kill shelters all across the Southeast, trains them and pairs them with veterans in need of mental, physical and emotional support.

Godwin and his wife, Mariah, and their Team Godwin Foundation have joined forces with the organization to sponsor a service dog for a veteran with the hope of saving not one, but two lives.

“I don’t think you can ever underestimate what giving someone hope can do,” Godwin said. “I think that dogs in general provide that, but service dogs — for whatever reason that someone may need it — just having that companionship, knowing that there’s gonna be someone that can understand you in some way … just gives you hope that the sun will come up the next day.”