KATE EMERY: Archie Wilson’s teary moment shouldn’t have gone viral (but I’m glad it has)

It sounds like something a serial killer might say: I love to watch a grown man cry.

But who among us could watch Aussie teenager Archie Wilson’s momentary breakdown at a press conference this week and not feel touched?

(Actually, if you watched the video of Wilson’s press conference and your heartstrings remained untugged, it is entirely possible you are a serial killer.)

Wilson shed tears when he was asked about the challenges of living away from his Melbourne-based family in the US, where he is pursuing a career in American football with the University of Nebraska.

“That part’s hard. I mean — I’m sorry,” he said, briefly putting his head on the podium as he cried.

“I love them a lot. I got two little brothers and my Mum and Dad. That’s the tough part about being here. I love them a lot and I miss them.”

Wilson quickly composed himself and went on with the press conference like a pro but that short clip has since travelled around the world — and for good reason.

What a rarity, even in a society supposedly so woke we sneeze rainbows, to see a young man be so vulnerable with his emotions in public.

This is what the antidote to toxic masculinity looks like: a burly 19-year-old athlete who is not afraid to admit he’s homesick and misses his family.

Wilson’s moment should never have gone viral because, in a right-thinking world, there would be nothing unusual about it. But it did because there is.

The video of the press conference has now appeared on websites around the world and on breakfast TV.

If sponsors aren’t blowing up Wilson’s phone already, they’re missing a trick.

Because this is what true grit looks like: a young athlete so determined to give it his all that he’s moved across the world to make it happen.

A young man who doesn’t have to pretend that his heart was replaced by a lump of coal the moment he went through puberty.

It is also a reminder of the cost of pursuing a professional sports career, which can involve extensive travel, relocating halfway across the world and spending months, if not years, away from everyone you know and love.

The rest of us see the glory and the big pay packets, but we don’t usually see the years of sacrifice before any of that comes.

The most refreshing thing about the attention Wilson has received is how positive the public response has been.

Variations on “I’d be proud if he was my son”, “he seems like a nice young man” and “hang in there young fella” have flooded every online news story about Wilson, overwhelming the handful of knuckle-draggers who think shedding a tear in public is somehow more embarrassing than being an emotional shut-in.

Wherever Wilson’s football career goes from here, it’s hard to believe there’s anything he can do on the field that will make his parents more confident they have raised a good kid than this.