When Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was approached about donating an item to a fundraising auction for University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, he came through with a package of tickets and travel to the Lions’ Monday Night Football game in Chicago in October. Then Stafford went to the auction, bought the item himself for $15,000, and gave it to a young patient at the hospital named Faith Falzone.
The Detroit News reached out to Stafford afterward, and he said he has gotten to know the Falzone family and wanted to see them enjoy the experience.
“They have been through so much in the past couple years, and to see how much they all supported each other and faith through their tough times was really inspiring,” Stafford said in a text message. “I wanted to give them something they could really be excited about and something I know they deserved.”
Others who deserve credit for their generosity include ESPN’s Monday Night Football play-by-play man Mike Tirico, who threw in two additional tickets to the package Stafford donated, and former Michigan players Brian Griese, Steve Hutchinson and Charles Woodson, who were the organizers of the fundraiser. Woodson has given $2 million of his own money to the hospital, and the fundraising efforts of Griese, Hutchinson and Woodson have totaled nearly $6 million over the last six years.