Sometimes it is about more than a game. Sometimes there is more going on in a young man’s life than football.
While we were arguing about quarterbacks, X’s and O’s, and why IU seemed so darn flat against Iowa, Reakwon Jones was wondering if his friends and family were alive, and if they still had a roof over their head. It turns out they didn’t.
When Category 4 Hurricane Michael hit the Florida panhandle on the Wednesday leading up to the Iowa game with winds of 155 miles per hour, Jones was supposed to be getting ready for the Hawkeyes. Needless to say, he was more than a little distracted.
You can read the Bloomington Herald Times’ account with quotes from Jones here.
Indiana head coach Tom Allen had this to say about the situation today at his Monday media availability:
“Reakwon’s gone through a lot with the hurricane and with his family’s experience and the loss they had with their home and his mom got to be here.
He’s been through a lot through these last several days with all that. So you think about our guys and what they go through — it’s not just football. There’s a lot of other things that go into this”
As Allen indicated, Jones’ mother and other family members were able to make it up to Bloomington this weekend. They had to stay in Jones’ one bedroom apartment, but that is better than the living conditions in Florida, where both his mother and father’s homes were destroyed.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
So that you can click with the comfort of knowing you are being provided a good link, below is the request for help sent out by the official IU football account on Twitter. If you click through the link it will take you to a GoFundMe page set up by the family.
Please do what you can. If you prefer a direct link to the GoFundMe page, here it is.
"The hurricane pretty much destroyed the whole city."
Help @Jones_Reakwon's family get back on their feet: https://t.co/DJk6J1U9dD. pic.twitter.com/bPWnayNplg
— Indiana Football (@IndianaFootball) October 22, 2018
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