The NFL world received welcomed news on Thursday that Bills safety Damar Hamlin was awake and responsive after suffering cardiac arrest following a tackle in Monday night’s game against the Bengals.
And while fantasy football could not have been less important during that life-or-death emergency, leagues were left to figure out how to handle championship games as the Bills-Bengals postponement had an impact in plenty of matchups.
It appears that many leagues out there decided against waiting for the NFL to make a call on the game’s resumption. Instead, they’ve opted to take an awesome approach to the situation by donating the league winnings to the Chasing M’s Foundation Community Toy Drive.
This one is great. Fantasy league donated winnings pic.twitter.com/JZK6vMDuDX
— Casey Pauline (@CAPauline) January 4, 2023
As of Thursday, the GoFundMe for Hamlin’s foundation — which had an initial goal of $2,500 — has raised $7.3 million with donations coming in from the likes of Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, Jim Irsay and Russell Wilson to name a few.
But the fantasy league donations really stood out.
Given how competitive big-money fantasy leagues can get, it was remarkable to see leagues donate the money in lieu of naming a single champion to cash in the prize.
It was simply a great gesture all the way around.
Take a look
My fantasy league donated all the money from the league to damar pic.twitter.com/Ucp8PcMFCE
— Ethan Brown (@TheEbro72) January 3, 2023
donated the league winnings to damar’s toy drive
— bumUndiscovered (@bumUndiscoverd) January 3, 2023
My fantasy league donated our entire buy in, $1000.
— Charles Hickey (@chickey253) January 4, 2023
Our fantasy football league pays a “bounty” to the highest scoring team each week. With week 17 still in question, the owners with the chance to win decided to donate it to #DamarHamlin’s foundation. Get well soon, @HamlinIsland! @Astro_JRod @stephortiz1 pic.twitter.com/ZGRhbpVLpi
— ChuckNice17 (@cHuCkNiCe17) January 5, 2023
What kind of Fantasy League has owners that come forward and say they want their winnings donated to Damar Hamlin’s charity? Shake ‘n’ Bake League does. Here’s the correct link for anyone else interested⬇️ #Love https://t.co/jWLzCi99rg
— Spencer Williams (@CoachWilliams63) January 5, 2023
I'm in a league where the prize pool was $500 and the two in the finals decided instead of finding a way to figure out who won, donate the whole thing to Hamlin. https://t.co/FMhvL8fmbC
— Joe DiBiase (@SneakyJoeSports) January 5, 2023
My league is in this exact situation. I am up 106 to 82 and my opponent has Josh Allen. We decided to just call it co-champions, take the winnings and donate it to Damars gofundme. Done deal.
— ʇoɥsnlɟ (@Flushot22) January 5, 2023
Our Dynasty league took the @TheFFBallers advice and donated a portion of the winnings to Damar Hamlin’s charity “The Chasing M’s Foundation” and it makes me a very proud co-commish! I hope other leagues do the same! Thank you @DynastyCoachA #prayersforDamarHamlin 🙏🏻💙 ❤️🩹 pic.twitter.com/R7jDGNYpbm
— Alexa 🏳️🌈🏈🏆🤓🖤💛 (@AlexaTradeTalk) January 5, 2023
I have decided that when my fantasy league calls this week officially (if I’m lucky enough to win) I will donate the prize money in full to Damar Hamlins GFM. I know its not a large gesture but winning money like this doesn’t sit right. All I hope is that that man is okay
— Robby Rosenfeld (@Robbygew) January 4, 2023
One league was even among the top donors:
That’s how it should be done.
