LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Every now and then, a selfless act can unite sports fans who were directly opposed to one another just hours prior.

What You Need To Know

  • Ravens QB Lamar Jackson was injured during the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills playoff game Bills 

  • After the Bills won, Bills fans called on members of "Bills Mafia" to donate to Jackson's favorite charity Blessings in a Backpack

  • As of Monday evening, donations directly tied to the efforts of Bills fans totalled $360,000.

  • $130 will feed a child for an entire school year, which means at least 2,769 additional children will be fed next school year

On the final play of the third quarter in Saturday's NFL divisional playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson scrambled into his own endzone and was knocked to the ground as he threw an incomplete pass.

Jackson's head hit the turf. Hard.

And the reigning NFL MVP, considered by many the most elusive player in the league, lay still on his back while trainers ran to his aid.

Jackson eventually stood up and walked to the locker room.

He was diagnosed with a concussion and never saw the field again as the Bills won the game, ascending to the conference championship for the first time in more than two decades and eliminating Baltimore from the playoffs.

Back in Buffalo, Dan Konopski and Will Burke — strangers at the time but both diehard Bills fans — felt a sense of sadness during their celebration.

"My first, initial thought was, 'that’s not how I want this to go,'" Burke said as he recalled his thoughts watching his team win with an injured Jackson in the locker room. He shared a screen with Konopski during a Monday Zoom interview with Spectrum News. "I definitely thought, like, hey, we can definitely turn this into a positive."

After the game, the two made posts on Reddit and Twitter, respectively, calling on members of "Bills Mafia," the self-titled blue-collar fanbase from northern New York, to donate to Jackson's favorite charity, Louisville-based Blessings in a Backpack.

Blessings in a Backpack is an organization which Jackson became fond during his Heisman Trophy-winning days at the University of Louisville. The nonprofit provides backpacks full of meals to food-insecure children on weekends when school meals aren't provided.

Blessings now has programs in 47 states and Washington, D.C.

What happened in the hours after the game astounded the unsuspecting leaders at the charity.

"(It was) crazy, crazy town," Blessings CMO Nikki Grizzle said with wide eyes during a Monday interview with Spectrum News.

As of Monday evening, donations directly tied to the efforts of Bills fans totalled $360,000.

Grizzle said $130 will feed a child for an entire school year, which means at least 2,769 additional children will be fed next school year, many of whom will be in Louisville.

On Monday, Jackson thanked members of the "Bills Mafia" for their donations on Twitter.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, praised the effort in his Monday coronavirus press briefing.

"What a beautiful gesture from the people of Buffalo," he said.

Konopski reflected on the pandemic, which has ravaged parts of New York as it has many cities across the United States.

"I'm willing to bet that more than half of the people that donated themsleves have been personally affected financially within the last year or so, and completely removed themselves from the equation and saw the call to action," Konopski said.

This is not the first time Bills fans have opened their hearts and wallets for someone on an opposing team.

In December of 2017, Andy Dalton led the Cincinnati Bengals to a victory over the Ravens. That win vaulted the Bills into the playoffs, who needed a Ravens loss to get in.

Bills Mafia heaped praise on Dalton and more than $415,000 into the account of the Andy and Jordan Dalton Foundation.

The following fall, the Daltons made a donation to the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo.

Back in Louisville, asked if these selfless acts might spawn Bills fans in neighborhoods far from Buffalo, Grizzle laughed and said she had already ordered Bills jerseys for her children.

"We might not play on the same team; we might play against each other sometimes," she said. "But, off the field, we all want the same thing, and that’s to do good."

Konopski plans to reach out to fans of the Bills' next opponent — the Kansas City Chiefs — and challenge them to donate to Blessings in a Backpack.

The Buffalo Bills play the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship at 6:40 pm Sunday, Jan. 24.

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