J.J. Watt leads NFL community in raising millions to help Hurricane Harvey victims

Hailey Hernandez

J.J. Watt leads NFL community in raising millions to help Hurricane Harvey victims image

Millions of dollars will be needed to help rebuild Houston and the surrounding areas as it recovers from the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Texans defensive end J.J. Watt wanted to help, so he started a fundraiser with a goal of $500,000. Three days later, he's on his way to raising $10 million.

MORE: Astros open up about images of Houston flooding that leave them heartbroken

Sunday, Watt personally donated $100,000 toward the $500,000 goal. As the donations keep coming in, Watt kept refusing to settle. After meeting his initial goal, he started increasing the targeted number in increments of $1 million. The fund only got bigger from there.

With the help of thousands of people, including celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres, he had managed to raise almost $9 million through Wednesday night. Earlier in the day he had increased his goal to $10 million, saying, "everything is bigger in Texas."

 

Watt is using social media to give updates on the progress of his fundraiser. Based on the timestamps from the tweets, the donations show no sign of slowing down.

MORE: Jaguars' Leonard Fournette donating $50K to J.J. Watt's hurricane relief fund

Other large sums of money started coming from the NFL on Monday. Texans owner Bob McNair and wife Janice announced they were giving a donation of $1 million to the United Way of Houston to help the flood relief efforts and its victims.

The torch was then passed to the NFL Foundation, which decided to match the donation from the Texans, per Charlotte Jones Anderson, chairperson of the NFL Foundation. Anderson is also the Cowboys executive vice president/chief brand officer and the daughter of Jerry Jones. Those funds will support the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army.

MORE: Houston's Kelvin Sampson sends out call for Harvey aid; colleagues respond in big way

A third donation came from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who pledged to match donations up to $1 million to the American Red Cross' Hurricane Harvey relief. 

Hailey Hernandez