From our buddy Jay Glazer of FOX Sports comes a great story for the holidays.
Glazer arranged through his Touchdown Dreams program for Ava Urrea, a four-year-old fan with hypoplastic left heart syndrome to visit the Raiders this week. The team pulled out all the stops for Ava, who was born with half a heart and has had 14 surgeries. (It’s the same condition that TJ Olsen, the son of Panthers tight end Greg Olsen, has been dealing with since birth.)
Ava received a signed helmet, signed footballs, and making her the captain for the day. Then came the unexpected twist. Raiders offensive lineman Menelik Watson donated his game check for the week to Ava’s family.
According to NFLPA records, Watson’s base salary for 2014 is $622,948. That makes his weekly gross salary $36,944.
With federal and California taxes consuming roughly half of that amount, the net check would have been in the range of $18,000.
It’s a great gesture by Watson, coming at the end of a season that has been focused all too often on all the bad things a small handful of NFL players do.