San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
A chance to inspire and help if you look
Inspiration is out there if you look for it. That might not count for much. But it counts for at least something.
It counts for at least something around San Antonio, where NFL defensive back Tre Flowers organized water and food distribution Saturday at Judson, and where Spurs players Lonnie Walker IV and Luka Samanic (per KENS-TV) donated to an effort to get hotel accommodations and essentials to those who needed it this week.
It counts for at least something in Houston, where residents received assistance from a current Rockets guard, John Wall, and a former one, James Harden, who announced he was giving away 3,000 meals at his new restaurant Saturday evening.
It counts for at least something in Dallas, where Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott helped a non-profit organization open an emergency weather shelter for 1,000 homeless people, and in College Station, where Texas A&M opened its basketball arena as a warming center, and in Austin, where former Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy brought breakfast tacos to students.
And if some of it is for attention? Well, that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? When former UT and NFL safety Michael Huff paid for 1,000 tacos in Austin on Thursday and lined up 300 meals at the new Pinkerton’s Barbecue in San Antonio for Sunday, no one was suggesting this was a case of an athlete solving a state’s problems.
It was just a reminder that there’s always an opportunity to help, if you look for it.
For many, the misery wrought by a record cold spell and the accompanying power outages across the state is not over. At times like these, which there
have been far too many lately, it can be difficult to knew where sports fit in, or where they should.
But the best answer, probably, is that sports fit in by coaches and players and staffers approaching this the same way everybody else does. They can keep taking their jobs seriously, while not forgetting about the people struggling, and they can pitch in however they can.
For some that might be a donation to a food bank, or a volunteer shift at a phone bank, or bringing water to a neighbor. For a star player it might be providing a few meals for people in the community. These are more than gestures, but even gestures can be important.
During the past few days, some have tried to tell us that this is out of our hands, and that there’s nothing that even a powerful elected official could do to change anything on his own.
But we’ve also learned about the power of a platform, and how willing people can be to follow a good example. In many ways, many of the successful fund-raising campaigns this week are following the lead of the $37 million that then-Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt raised for Hurricane Harvey relief in 2017.
In that case, the attention generated by an athlete turned out to be an undeniably good thing.
Of course, not all of the sports-related headlines during disasters are so inspiring. As in most businesses, some have found a way to make a horrible situation work to their benefit, and few benefited this week like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
According to Bloomberg, Jones owns a majority of shares in Comstock Resources, Inc., a shale drilling company whose president and chief financial
officer reportedly told investors that this week’s soaring natural gas prices were “like hitting the jackpot.”
Perhaps Jones will use at least part of that windfall to make some contributions to residents in Arlington, which provided more than $300 million in public funds to help build his stadium. Or maybe he can use it to finally extend the contract of Prescott, who would then be
able to do even more to aid the homeless.
Signing a star to a huge contract wouldn’t make Jones a role model, necessarily. But around his league, and in plenty of others this week, there are people who can serve as an inspiration.
If he looks for it.