As the world continues to get a fuller understanding of the devastation resulting from the earthquake in Haiti, there’s one NFL player on whom the tragedy is taking a significant personal toll.
Per Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, Colts receiver Pierre Garcon has “too many [relatives] to count” still residing in Haiti.
As of Wednesday, Garcon’s family in the U.S. hadn’t heard from many of their Haitian family members.
“It’s terrible,” Garcon told Robinson. “It’s probably the worst thing that could ever happen. It’s probably worse than a nightmare. It’s a poor country and this just makes it worse.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was like ‘An earthquake in Haiti?’ I never could imagine it, because I only think of earthquakes in California and out there. I never could believe it. A Caribbean earthquake, I didn’t see it coming.”
Garcon’s mother lives in Florida, and she has been trying to contact her Haitin relatives.
"[We] haven’t heard much from them,” Garcon said. “We’re still waiting to see. Mom is trying to call. Hopefully [we’ll] get some good news. . . . I have a lot of people - a lot of close people.”
Garcon plans to play on Saturday night, but he plans to travel to Haiti as soon as he can.
At a time when much of our own attention is focused on the NFL postseason and (for 24 teams) the early stages of the offseason, Garcon’s situation is a stark reminder that many other things are going on in the world -- and plenty of them are not good.
So take some time today and call up the American Red Cross web site and make a donation to the relief efforts.