Did Bobby Wagner buy your groceries? Safeway shoppers saw the LB’s philanthropy in action
If you are a Seahawks fan, you’ve already given thanks 100 times over for Bobby Wagner being in the middle of your team’s defense.
The All-Pro middle linebacker has been a huge reason why Seattle has won this region’s only Super Bowl title while making the playoffs six of the last seven years. The Seahawks’ all-time tackles leader is a large reason why the 9-2 team enters Monday night’s home game against Minnesota (8-3) perhaps two wins away from making it to seven postseasons in the last eight years.
But there are hundreds if not thousands of families in West Seattle and beyond who are thankful for Wagner for real-life reasons, ones far more important than football.
Let’s let the Seahawks captain describe his latest off day at a West Seattle Safeway on Tuesday:
“I was packing bags with Thanksgiving food for the tiny homes that I kind of helped out early in the year,” Wagner said of the Low Income Housing Institute’s project to house the homeless he partnered with this summer. “And then the area that we were at in the Safeway is, I guess, where the high school students hang out. So we were kind of in their area.
“While we were waiting I saw everybody Thanksgiving shopping. So I thought it would be cool that when they went to the cash register they wouldn’t have to pay.
“And so, you know, I kind of secretly tried to say that I was paying for it, their meals.”
Wagner pledged to pay for all the groceries for every shopper in the store for the next 35 minutes or so.
“I got to see the reaction of one lady (at the register),” Wagner said.
“She was, like, really surprised.”
The star-struck high school kids initially were unaware Wagner was buying all the groceries for everyone in the store. The kids continued gawking at the superstar linebacker with shoulders as wide as aisle three. They continued watching him bag more Thanksgiving food for the tiny homes residents.
Uncomfortable with being stared at like a zoo animal, Wagner finally implored the teenagers to go shopping, too.
“Buy whatever you want,” he told them. “It’s on me.”
Uh oh.
The teens dispersed—straight to the rack of gift cards for electronics. Some of those items, such as for XBox and other gear, can be up to $1,000, the most expensive items in any grocery store. In the name of sanity, store managers steered the kids away from those items and to what Wagner intended they buy: food.
So of course the teens bought Doritos, candy, Gatorade, pretty much anything with sugar and without nutrition.
“The kids came up—after they got a bunch of junk—and said, ‘Thank you,’ Wagner said, smiling.
“When I was in high school I probably would have done the same thing.”
Not doing it for accolades
Seattle-area television stations saw shoppers’ and the teens’ postings online about Wagner’s benevolence and rushed out to the store to report it Tuesday.
“I got out before the cameras got there,” Wagner said.
After he left, shoppers in the store were chanting “Bob-by! Bob-by!”
“I went there just to bag some food for the tiny homes that I’ve been a part of,” Wagner said. “And it kind of turned into something else.”
“I told them to go shop. And then, social media. And the rest is history. ...
“The original thing was, they weren’t supposed to know that I did that. But with cell phones, it’s kind of hard.”
That’s the thing. Wagner doesn’t want notoriety for his philanthropy.
This summer he began an under-the-radar effort he calls “BWagz Sees You.” In July, two days before he agreed to his new Seahawks contract worth $54 million, the highest for a middle linebacker in NFL history, Wagner visited all nine of the Low Income Housing Institute’s tiny house homeless villages/encampment sites around Seattle. Wagner delivered food, equipment, hygiene products and other supplies to hundreds of homeless families living in the LIHI’s Northlake, Interbay, Othello, Camp Second Chance, Tiny House, Georgetown, Whittier Heights, True Hope and Lake Union villages. They are 24/7 indoor shelters permitted by the city of Seattle.
Wagner also purchased nine tiny houses to expand LIHI’s villages. He has plans to buy at least that many more.
When he learned one of the homes didn’t have a refrigerator to store the inhabitant’s food he was buying, he bought that tiny house a refrigerator.
Before that, “they had to figure out what foods to get, because they didn’t have a refrigerator,” Wagner said. “So, found that out, wanted to help.
“It really is a tiny home. You walk into it, it’s four walls and a family sleeping. I didn’t really want to invade their privacy. Some let me come in and see how they are living.”
The only reason I found out about Wagner’s effort with tiny homes was from the LIHI posting about it online in July. And I’ve covered him every football day for the last five years, talking with him about hot yoga, basketball, colleges, families and of course football—but not this.
Deeply rooted desire to share and help
We hadn’t talked about him donating more money to fight against childhood hunger. Not him hosting of a bowling event for underserved children. Nor his “Walk with Wagner” community even to raise stroke awareness around Seattle. Haven’t talked about his previous partnerships with Seattle-area Safeway stores that have raised $50,000 for charity.
That’s because he wants it that way.
Wagner said he was ingrained with the goal to help others in need while seeing classmates at Colony High School in his hometown of Ontario, Calif., who struggled to buy food and clothes. Three contracts into his wildly successful NFL career, he’s been giving back.
Low-key, giving back.
He says his Seahawks teammates tell him around the locker room he should promote his philanthropy.
At least more than he does, which is next to nothing.
He’s response? Nah.
“What I do, it’s genuine. It’s from the heart,” he said. “I don’t really care if people see that I do it, or notice that I do it, or even recognize that it was me doing it. I just do it because I feel like there are a lot of people out there that need a hand, and, you know, I try to lend a hand.
“I don’t need a lot of acknowledgment or want people to pat me on the back, or whatever. I just want to help the people that I feel I can help. And if there’s an opportunity that I can help, I do it. And nine times out of 10, it’s pretty quiet.
“That’s just how it is. I want it to be genuine. I want them to know.
“I want them to know that I’m not doing this for attention.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 3:13 PM.
