On Tuesday, September 17, Dom Tiberi’s life was changed forever. That night, the sports director at the CBS-affiliate in Columbus, Ohio, lost his daughter to a car wreck. AT 10:45 PM, Maria Tiberi, a student of Ohio State University, rear-ended a tractor-trailer which was stopped in heavy traffic. Maria was rushed to Ohio Health Grant Medical Center, where she died due to her injuries.

Before OSU’s next game against Florida A&M, the Ohio State community honored the Tiberi family by holding a moment of silence. The Ohio State football program took the tribute one step further by applying black “MT” stickers to their helmets.

But for Urban Meyer and his Buckeyes, this one gesture was not yet enough. When Dom Tiberi returned to work for the pivotal Ohio St. vs. Wisconsin match-up this past Saturday, the football team decided to show him how deep their sympathies and appreciation ran.

Upon heading to the locker-room following their hard-fought 31-24 victory over the Badgers, the football players took a pit-stop to pay their respects to Tiberi in the most sincere way possible – Hugs. As each player approached Dom Tiberi, they stopped to give the man a much-needed hug and words of sympathy and condolence.

After the gesture, Tiberi tweeted the following:

When Tiberi returned to work at 10TV on Monday, he had some words of thanks for the central Ohio community:

Despite the outpouring of support, Tiberi said “It’s never going to be the same; a little piece of me died.” However, Tiberi still holds a positive perspective on the world: “We’re going to try to make a positive out of this… Thanks for sticking with me.”

Ohio State’s next game is against the No.16 Northwestern Wildcats, currently undefeated at 4-0.

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