Chiefs Fans Thanking Alex Smith By Donating to His Foundation
Continuing one of the best fan trends we've seen in years, Chiefs fans are thanking Alex Smith for his tenure in Kansas City by donating to the recently traded quarterback's foundation.
The most common donation has been for $11, a nod to Smith's jersey number. According to its website, the Alex Smith Foundation provides foster teens with the tools and resources needed to transition to successful adulthood by developing and promoting mentoring, education, housing, internship, job, and advocacy programs.
The Chiefs reached an agreement on Tuesday night to trade Smith, 33, to the Redskins in exchange for Kendall Fuller and a third-round draft pick. Smith spent five seasons with Kansas City and led the Chiefs to the playoffs four times.
This is the third instance this season that fanbases have donated to a players' foundation as a method of saying thank you. After Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass in Week 17 to beat the Ravens and send the Bills to the playoffs for the first time in 17 years, Bills fans starting donating en masse to Dalton's foundation, mostly in chunks of $17. When all was said and done, more than 16,000 Bills fans had donated more than $360,000.
Vikings fans got in on the charitable wave after their team's miraculous 29-24 victory over the Saints in the NFC Divisional Round. After Stefon Diggs' unbelievable game-winning touchdown as time expired, Saints players had to trot out of the locker room and back onto the field because the Vikings by rule still had to line up for the extra point. Thomas Morstead, the Saints punter who was dealing with a painful rib injury, was one of the players to run back on the field. In appreciation of this act of sportsmanship, giddy Vikings fans donated a total of more than $200,000 to Morstead's What You Give Will Grow foundation.
This is a trend we can all get behind, no matter who you root for.
