Seahawks’ DK Metcalf donates to Seattle hospital fighting COVID-19, to hometown for meals
DK Metcalf continues to show he’s advanced well beyond his 22 years.
And not just on the field.
The Seahawks’ wide receiver and 2019 rookie star is donating $25,000 to Swedish Hospitals to fight the coronavirus pandemic in Seattle, and another $25,000 to feed needy people in his hometown of Oxford, Miss. Adam Schefter of ESPN was the first to report Metcalf’s donations Wednesday.
Swedish has a main medical center in Seattle and smaller ones in the city’s neighborhoods such as Ballard. It is one of the many hospitals in the country’s early epicenter for the COVID-19 outbreak that has had front-line workers battling the virus each day for more than a month.
In December, Metcalf partnered with a coffee company based in Georgia, Volcanica, to sell a “Decaf Metcalf” blend. Metcalf pledged to donate part of the proceeds to Prison Fellowship, a justice-reform advocacy group that helps prisoners, former prisoners and their families. That’s the organization Metcalf highlighted as his charity of choice for the NFL’s My Cause My Cleats game week last season.
Last summer, before he’d played in his first NFL regular-season game, Metcalf spent part of a team off day from preseason practice at Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, surprising 25 teachers from Seattle Public Schools with gifts to buy back-to-school essentials for their classrooms.
Metcalf grew up in Oxford and stayed home to go to school and play for the University of Mississippi through last spring. That’s when the Seahawks traded up to select the freakishly physical pass catcher in the second round of the 2019 NFL draft.
Two years after a doctor told him he would never play football again because of a broken neck he got in a game for Ole Miss, Metcalf had an impressive rookie season for Seattle. He capped it in Philadelphia in January, setting an NFL record for rookies in a playoff game with 160 yards receiving. His diving, lunging catch of Russell Wilson’s pass and his roll, rise and run in one motion created a 53-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter of the Seahawks’ win over the Eagles in the wild-card round.
“There’s really just no limits on him,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said at the league’s scouting combine in February.
Metcalf’s work off the field remains just as impressive.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 1:53 PM.
