Toms River Boy Hopes For Return Of Autographed Football

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Toms River boy is hoping someone will return a sentimental football he lost at Friday night's Toms River North football game.

Joey Cirillo, 10, was at the Mariners' game and was throwing the football around at the game with his cousins when it disappeared at the top of the bleachers shortly before halftime.

But the football isn't just any football; Jonathan Casillas of the New York Giants signed the ball for Joey this summer during the USA Football Protection Corps event that taught young football players the fundamentals of tackling safely, said Erica Cirillo, Joey's mother.

After the event, which was held at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, they allowed families of the children who participated in the camp to walk around on the football field. So Joey, Joey's twin sister Leigha, and older sister Kristianna, who's almost 11, and their parents got to meet the players as well.

Casillas saw Leigha, who's in a wheelchair due to issues from a rare chromosomal disorder, and asked if he could sit next to her. "He spent about half an hour with us," Erica Cirillo said, and signed Joey's Franklin-brand football. Even though Joey is a Miami Dolphins fan, it was really meaningful to have Casillas spend so much time with them, she said.

"It was really special," she said.

Erica Cirillo said some of the girls who were part of the group say a group of older boys in the area but no one is entirely sure what happened to the ball.

Toms River police officers at the game saw Joey upset that he could not find the ball and helped him search with flashlights but to no avail.

"They were so great," Erica Cirillo said.

Erica Cirillo figures whoever wound up with the football doesn't understand its sentimental value, and she's hoping someone will see what it means and get it back to Joey.

She's posted on Facebook and can be contacted through Facebook to return it.

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