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On Monday, following the Minnesota Vikings’ improbable victory over the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Divisional Playoffs, we spoke about Saints’ punter Thomas Morstead, who suffered an injury on his first punt of the game, and not only played through it, but was part of the contingent that came back out onto the field at U.S. Bank Stadium for the final extra point despite his injuries. (It turns out that it was some torn rib cartilage and not a broken rib, but still. . .that hurts.)
Well, following Morstead’s performance, a Reddit user started a movement to get fans of the Vikings to donate to Morstead’s charity, named What You Give Will Grow. What You Give Will Grow is a charity that focuses primarily on pediatric cancer. The campaign started out slowly at first, but now apparently the donations have grown to in excess of $30,000.
Morstead has announced that any donations that his charity receives this week will be given to Children’s Hospital of Minnesota, and he’s got a bit of a challenge for everyone out there.
Over $25K now.
— Thomas Morstead (@thomasmorstead) January 17, 2018
I’ll fly up to Minneapolis week of the Super Bowl to personally do a check presentation with @childrensmn if we get to $100K https://t.co/CqTjsmnT4E
This isn’t the first time this postseason we’ve seen fans of another team show their charitable side as a show of thanks to an opposing player. After the Cincinnati Bengals helped the Buffalo Bills get into the playoffs for the first time in seventeen years, Bills’ fans donated in droves to quarterback Andy Dalton’s foundation. (Many did so in $17 increments, signifying the team’s 17-year playoff drought.)
UPDATE: As user “Rieux” points out, there is a page at the What You Give Will Grow website that is specifically tracking donations from Vikings’ fans. All of the links to the charity have now been changed to take you directly to that page instead. Thanks, Rieux!
It would be pretty awesome if Thomas Morstead had to make another trip to Minneapolis to make this happen. I’m not sure how he’d get one of those big cardboard checks onto an airplane or anything, but minor logistical things like that could be worked out at another time, presumably.
If you want to donate to What You Give Will Grow, you can just hit any of the times it’s linked in this story and hit the “Donate” button.