By now, you've probably heard the city of Flint, Michigan, is in the midst of a water crisis due to lead contamination in the local water supply.
Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah heard about the story and decided he wanted to help out, so he rounded up the rest of his fellow defensive linemen to do something about it. They put together enough money to donate more than their goal of 94,000 bottles of water to the city, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press:
Today, Ansah, fellow Detroit Lions Haloti Ngata, Darryl Tapp, Gabe Wright, Jason Jones and Joique Bell, and Wright’s friend Angelo Blackson of the Tennessee Titans, spent nearly two hours unloading a truckload of more than 40,000 water bottles and delivering some of the supply to a local community center.
The group, which purchased the water at cost from grocery distributor SpartanNash, who transported it free to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, has two more truckloads of water ready to be delivered in the coming weeks.
"They didn’t hesitate at all," Ansah said. "Everyone’s like, ‘Oh yeah, yeah. What’s up?’ There were a few guys that were already planning on doing that, so bringing it to the group was a great idea. Everybody just chipped in. Some of the guys are here. Those that were not able to be here contributed some money towards it, so I’m happy we were able to do this."
The Lions helped deliver a shipment of water earlier Friday afternoon:
Photos of @Ziggy_Ansah & #Lions teammates donating bottled water in Flint: https://t.co/9kFN4c2l59 pic.twitter.com/8FER1nGVLL
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 22, 2016
At a time when a lot of players are scattered across the country working out and trying to get ready for a new season, it's great to see players stepping up to help people within the state where they play in a time of great need.