'4Evs': Spytek family honors late daughter through NFL's 'My Cause My Cleats' campaign

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas Raiders General Manager John Spytek tells me the NFL's "My Cause My Cleats" game is his favorite every year, and this season carries special meaning as he continues to honor his late daughter Evelyn.

For Evelyn

"To have her on the shoes is wonderful and the artist who did the shoes couldn't have done a better job and then the 4EVS is kind of our call sign for Evelyn but also forever," John said.

For evermore, John, his wife Kristen and their family will honor their late daughter Evelyn, who died at just 21 months old of congenital cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a disease that causes birth defects and developmental disabilities.

"As a dad and as a husband you want to do what you can to fix it — that wasn't just not something that was doable, and I do very vividly remember one of the NICU nurses coming in probably about a week after Evelyn's life and saying whatever you thought your normal was going to be or whatever your hopes were it's not going to be the way you wanted it to be," John said.

While they knew they couldn't fix their situation, John and Kristen now work to help others through the National CMV Foundation, an organization they founded in 2014.

"The hope was to just simply notify other parents, give them resources, arm them with education, and now I think we are at the table. There is a strong desire to see treatment, to see newborn screening. There is a strong desire for a vaccine so, we are really pushing," Kristen said.

When I asked what John's most proud of after 10 going on 11 years of their foundation, he reflected on his wife's strength.

"I think I'm most proud of her — to have all of the emotions of having this child that was gonna have not the life that you pictured, and then through her death, to take that and use it as motivation to be like 'we just have to keep going.' It very much became the mantra for our family, we've been through a lot, and the people who work on the board of directors are a lot of parents," John said. "The group of people have been inspiring to be around — that they just won't be denied — and I think that's the spirit that you need when you're fighting the battle that we are everyday."

That spirit is shown through Spytek's shoes, marking his eighth season of participating in the cause.

"I actually started in Tampa in 2017 with some red shoes that didn't look anything like that and CMV spray painted on them. I know I have a few players wearing them this week. There are a bunch of guys in Tampa who are wearing them again this year too...it's hard for me to put into words how special and how much it means to us," John said.

The game doesn't get any easier year after year.

"You just look at them and remember her and the life she had with us. It's been about a decade now since we lost her, but we miss her everyday. What'd I say this one Thanksgiving? She taught me more about patience and perspective in 20 months than I learned my entire life, and I carry that with me all the time," John said.

That sense of strength is something that the Spyteks, their CMV community and NFL family will continue to carry with them for Evs.

"Those are the best things in life — the things you really have to fight for and work for. It's not the things that are easy and given to you. We wouldn't trade the grief and the pain that we feel for anything in the world, just to have had her for 21 months is everything to us," John said.