Minnesota Shows its Nice to Thomas Morstead and He Returns the Favor
Not a thing has changed except the year. It’s 2018 and our state’s Minnesota Nice persona reigns strong as ever. A prime example of this is the feel-good story surrounding Skol Nation and Saints’ Punter, Thomas Morstead.
To get you up to speed on what lead up to this point:
- On Sunday, Morstead injured his ribs tackling Marcus Sherels on a return.
#Saints punter Thomas Morstead tackle pic.twitter.com/Gjt1JbtTjv
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 14, 2018
- New Orleans’ punter remained in the game despite obvious pain.
- After Diggs’ GW TD, the Saints needed 11 players to come back out onto the field for the completion of a meaningless PAT.
- Morstead was the first New Orleans’ player to return from the locker room. Eventually, after leading the Skol Clap with the fans, Case Keenum took a knee to make the victory official.
Vikings fans have donated over $100K to Saints punter @thomasmorstead’s foundation, @wygwg6 out of respect.
Looks like we’ll be seeing Thomas Morstead in Minneapolis for the Super Bowl!pic.twitter.com/gBglrJ7khU
— SB Nation (@SBNation) January 18, 2018
Morstead’s approach, despite his teams defeat, stuck out to one Minnesotan in particular. That would be Vikings fan, Garrick Shurts. Inspired by the punter’s sportsmanship, he posted an article on Reddit.com. Through the website, Shurts encouraged people to donate to the athlete’s charity, as a way to commend him for how he handled himself in the Divisional Playoff round.
From that point, Skol Nation & Morstead went to work.
Name a more iconic duo. I’ll wait. pic.twitter.com/M7dSmqNayv
— Johnny Minnesota (@TheJohnnyMN) January 18, 2018
After Shurts’ article gained traction, money started to trickle into the punter’s foundation. Once Morstead’s business team started to notice most of the donations were coming from MN addresses, they investigated.
Upon putting two and two together, the Saints’ player announced that he was “blown away” by the generosity. Additionally, he also stated: “All the donations we have received and will receive through the end of this week will be donated back to Children’s Hospital in Minnesota.”
Some Minnesota Nice from the guy with New Orleans ties. I like it.
His announcement to keep the money in Minnesota was made on Tuesday afternoon.
That’s when the positive side of social media really showed. Word of the athlete’s proverbial curveball spread like wildfire. Thousands and thousands of dollars started to pile up. Next, Thomas Morstead announced on Wednesday morning that if the funds reached a total of 100K, he’d fly up during Super Week to deliver the check to, Minnesota Children’s Hospital, in person.
Done & Done. In a little more than 24 hours from his INITIAL Twitter post, over six figures had been raised for Minnesota Children’s, Child Life Department .
Like Sunday’s “Minneapolis Miracle“, there wasn’t much more of a fitting way to wrap up this win:
.@thomasmorstead We’re inspired by your sportsmanship and want to help you reach your goal.
Us and the @Saints are teaming up to donate $10k to help you surpass $100k.
We’ll see you in Minneapolis! https://t.co/dzMYkFur6Y
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) January 17, 2018
This is football. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
As of Thursday morning, over 150K total had been donated. The rest of America is loving this shit, Minnesota. Let’s keep it rolling. If you are interested in, and able to contribute, you can do it here via this link: Vikings Give to the Who Dat Nation
In closing, good looking, Skol Nation. In the eyes of the ever important Football Gods, the difference between you and Sean Payton is night and day.
Johnny Minnesota @TheJohnnyMN
Minnesota Sports Fan MinnesotaSportsFan.com
More About:Minnesota Vikings
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