Rodney Harrison and Expectations

Last night I saw Rodney Harrison of the New England Patriots. He was giving a talk and although I don't care much for football, I thought it might be a nice opportunity. My fiance, a season ticket holder, loves the Patriots. Completely obsessed. His brief description of Rodney : "He's a strong safety, he a very tenacious guy, hit's people really hard, and Freddy Mitchell, of the Eagles, was talking smack about him before the superbowl, but it turns out that Harrison caught more balls from the Eagles QB than Mitchell did himself."
So I guess I went into the hotel hall knowing a little bit... and as it turns out a little bit more than the girls sitting next to me. When Rodney walked in everyone started cheering. I was expecting some big, ugly fat guy. Much to my surprise, Rodney is a good looking man! I also expected that this guy wouldn't be able to construct proper sentences, I guess I was just wrongly stereotyping about NFL players. But Rodney was quite personable and had the whole room roaring with laughter a number of times in the night.
Before Rodney spoke the announcer said "Everyone pick up the bread plate to the right of you. Look underneath. If you got a ticket then you've won an autograph." I actually won, I wasn't expecting to win, I never win. I'm really unlucky. Because I won, I was starting to get excited for the evening.
Finally at the end of the night anyone who won stood in line and got an autographed picture of Rodney Harrison. I didn't want just a signature, I wanted a message. I especially wanted something for my fiance, but I wasn't sure if Rodney would be too keen on it. Not even considering the fact that both my name and my fiance's name are not-so-common and I was afraid he might spell them wrong even if I spelled them out for him.
Well as I walked up to him I asked [very politely] "Could I have something special written on mine?" "Now, what's so special about you?", he asked, but it wasn't in a mean way. He was smiling. "Well, I'm getting married in a couple of months?" wondering if this actually constitutes "special". I forgot to mention that my fiance was a huge fan or that he was a season ticket holder, I didn't know what to say.
I guess Rodney bought it and it turns out that he wrote a very nice message.
"Love and Honor each other." So overall, I must admit my expectations of the whole ordeal were too low, and Rodney, his speech, his demeanor, and of course my autograph definitely exceeded them.