DUPO, Ill. (First Alert 4) – Steve Prater, a Kansas City Chiefs fan, has a room in his Dupo home dedicated to the team, decorated wall-to-wall in red and gold.
After a car crash in January, Prater was in a coma for three days.
“They woke me up to ask my feelings on them taking my eye, because either I’ll either lose my other eye because it will leak into it, and I said, well there’s no discussion, I can get a Kansas City Chiefs eye. They started laughing. They thought I was joking,” Prater recalled.
He was not joking. After his right eye was removed, he told the prosthetist he did not want another brown eye.
“If you’re gonna give me another brown eye, I don’t want it cause I had one for 46 years and you took that one from me. So she’s like, well, what do you want, and I go, I want a Kansas City Chiefs eye, and she goes, I can do that,” Prater said.
With the new eye in place, people began to notice.
“At first they’re like, is your eye red, then I go yeah I got a Kansas City Chiefs eye, and they’re like, no freakin way I love it,” Prater said.
Prater posted a picture of the eye.
“Wasn’t searching for nothing, just trying to bring some cheer and light to the fans,” Prater said.
A story about Prater has nearly 600,000 views on social media, which he said was never his goal.
“There is life after a tragedy. Adversity comes and you can either lay down or stand up, and I got too much to stand up for,” Prater said.
Prater said he hopes to eventually add a Patrick Mahomes eye and a Chris Jones eye.
“And I wanted to switch them over, the offense when they bring them out, and the defense when they bring them out,” Prater said.
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