WATT A GUY
J.J. Watt reveals how $41.6 million of Harvey donation money to his foundation is being spent
Steven Devadanam
Aug 27, 2018, 10:48 am
This article originally appeared on CultureMap.
Houston Texans megastar J.J. Watt simply wanted to help. As Harvey was decimating his beloved city, the NFL and pop culture phenom released a video, enlisting fans and followers for support. He challenged them to raise for $200,000 to his Justin J. Watt Foundation via a YouCaring drive, “because I know these recovery efforts are going to be massive,” he told viewers.
Watt couldn’t have expected the overwhelming response. In less than two hours, he met his goal; in 24 hours, he surpassed $500,000. Soon he was announcing increases almost daily — the Tennessee Titans, sending love to their former home, sent $1 million to Watt’s campaign alone.
The final number: a staggering $41.6 million — the largest crowdsourced fundraiser in world history, according to the foundation.
Soon, Watt was receiving global praise, and was bestowed with the NFL’s Walter Payton Award, which recognizes the player who best demonstrates a charitable and community spirit. As SportsMap editor Fred Faour noted, the award was a no-brainer.
But, questions quickly arose as to where the funds were being appropriated; Watt even publicly responded to one dubious fan.
Finally, there are answers. On August 27, Watt’s foundation released a statement outlining the progress of the contributions made to the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund started by Watt “following the destruction left by Hurricane Harvey 12 months ago.”
All funds have been distributed to eight nonprofits: All Hands and Hearts, Americares, Boys & Girls Clubs, Baker Ripley, Feeding America, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children, and SBP, according to the statement released by the foundation and the Houston Texans.
Additionally, the monies have so far been used on:
The statement also outlines a 12-month plan, stating “the work continues.”
In addition to details of the disbursement, Watt released a lengthy letter to fans and supporters of his cause.
Continue reading on CultureMap.
When you hit rock bottom the only direction to go is up. Actually that's not true, you can continue to be a bottom feeder. Things are not nearly so dire for the Astros, despite them enduring one of the more pathetic weeks in franchise history. The Astros nearly had a perfect game pitched against them by a guy who had zero big league wins and a 6.70 earned run average. After managing to eke out a win the following game, they were shutout three games in a row. In the game after that Framber Valdez gave up six runs in the first inning, essentially ending the game right then and there. But hey, the Astros scored two runs in Wednesday's 7-2 loss, snapping an embarrassing run of 31 consecutive scoreless times at bat. Yet somehow over that stretch of gross, the Astros increased their American League West lead! The somehow being the Seattle Mariners saying "hold my beer" and losing five days in a row.
Reminder to those wanting to have the fat lady start warming in the bullpen thinking the Astros are done: the 162-game regular season lends itself to sometimes extreme peaks and valleys. The Astros limped out of Detroit with a record of 14-23 in their last 37 games. Over that time span only the Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants have worse records. Immediately before this lengthy garbage stretch of performance, the Astros went a blistering 29-10. Bi-polarity is part of the baseball season. The Tigers flat destroyed the Astros three days in a row to run the Motowners' recent spurt to 16 wins in 23 games. Immediately before going 16-7, the Tigers lost 12 out of 13! The longest winning streak in the American League this season is the 13-gamer put up by the Minnesota Twins. The rest of their season was so bad the Twins dealt away nearly half their roster before the trade deadline. The Red Sox had a 10-game losing streak earlier this season. The Yankees endured a miserable stretch of 6-16. Of most direct import to the Astros, the Mariners big dumped seven out of eight games directly after their eight-game winning streak had wiped out what remained of the Astros' one-time seven game American League West division lead. It's the full 162 games that tell the tale. The Astros absolutely could collapse out of the playoffs entirely. But that such is inevitable is ridiculous. In part because….
Yordan Alvarez should actually play in a game that counts this coming Tuesday. Why wait that long? He had two hits and a walk (and a stolen base...why Yordan, why!) in his first game in the minors Tuesday. If the long-injured and recovering hand is okay, having him play in the minors through the weekend is a waste of time. If Alvarez's timing isn't up to speed, so what? The mere threat Yordan represents is better than the dreck populating much of Joe Espada's batting order these days. The back-to-back games he's playing in the minors Thursday and Friday should have been in Baltimore in an Astros' uniform.
Any game Alvarez is the designated hitter removes deployment in the DH role of José Altuve. That's okay, Altuve is needed in left field because the ludicrously lousy offense from the other Astros' outfielders might not be good enough to win this week's Little League World Series. Hyperbole, but you get the point. Cam Smith has been brutally inept at the plate for almost a month and a half, arriving in Baltimore with a .137 batting average over his last 102 at bats and not a single homer in his last 149 ABs. While Smith's future can still be very bright, his present is pitch dark. Jacob Melton has been almost completely overmatched at the plate, batting .170 with an absurd 23 strikeouts in his first 54 at bats. Jesus Sanchez has stunk since coming in trade from the Marlins. Chas McCormick is a better comic reliever than he has been a hitter for more than a year and a half. Taylor Trammell's career big league batting average is .177. No one confuses Mauricio Dubon or Ramon Urias with Craig Biggio, but either guy in the lineup at second base with Altuve in left is better than Altuve at second and any of those outfielders playing.
While the Astros strive to garner at least a split of their four-game set with the Orioles this weekend, the Mariners are home for three vs. the Athletics. Since the All-Star break, the A's have the best record among the five AL West clubs. The Astros have the worst. As this column has covered, wild swings of results can happen at any time, but the Tigers crushing the Astros basically ends plausible Astros' hopes of winding up with the best record in the AL. The Tigers shoved the Astros six games behind them, and clinched the season series tiebreaker. The Astros still could run down Toronto for the second-best AL mark and bye past the best-of-three Wild Card round that comes with it. Along with playing vastly better ball period, the Astros quite likely would have to win their series over the Blue Jays in Canada next month.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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