A charity that provides supplemental food assistance for food pantries in Washington, D.C., received more than $6,000 in donations over 24 hours — all thanks to a Pittsburgh Steelers fan and a missed field goal.
Emily Householder-Stacy, 34, was “riding the high of the Steelers’ win” over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday when she came across a Steelers subreddit page talking about the backlash Ravens kicker Tyler Loop received online following a missed field goal that won Pittsburgh the game.
After seeing the online vitriol directed at Loop, Householder-Stacy — who is a Steelers fan living in Canton, Ohio — decided to show support for the 24-year-old player by encouraging fans to donate to the John S. Mulholland Family Foundation, a charity associated with Loop.
“He’s a rookie,” Householder-Stacy told TribLive on Tuesday. “It’s a lot of pressure.”
Since the Steelers beat the Ravens, 26-24, Loop’s Instagram page has been full of angry comments from fans targeting Loop and his fiancée on a post announcing their engagement in March.
Comments on the post were restricted by the account’s administrator Tuesday, but some of the ones that remained under the photo read: “TRASH,” “Follow me if you hate Tyler Loop” and “Hopefully she’s cheating on you.”
Householder-Stacy said the subreddit was full of sympathetic comments from Steelers fans.
She told reporters Tuesday that she saw a comment from another user that suggested donating to a charity in Loop’s honor.
After a quick Google search, Householder-Stacy came across an event Loop had done with the John S. Mulholland Family Foundation on Thanksgiving.
“He signed autographs for everyone who donated,” said Brian Mulholland, founder of the John S. Mulholland Family Foundation.
Householder-Stacy posted a flyer to Reddit from the November event and donations to the charity started rolling in.
Since then, Mulholland said, the charity has received thousands of visitors to its website.
“I’ve got 8,000 more friends that I didn’t have yesterday,” Mulholland told TribLive. “Isn’t that nice that people on two different sides (came together)?”
Popular donation amounts to John S. Mulholland Family Foundation included: $26.24 for the score of the game, $33 in honor of Loop’s jersey number and $30 for the number of field goals Loop had made through the season, Mulholland said.
“Good idea. He’s a good kid who did good work for Baltimore this season, and it’s a shame to see him get so much flak for being human under incredible pressure,” one user said.
“I love this. I’m sure the poor kid feels terrible enough as it is. I’m proud our fan base is trying to turn lemons into lemonade for him. I hope this doesn’t hurt the rook’s career going forward,” another user said.
Mulholland was moved by the donations incoming from both Baltimore and Pittsburgh. His father — who was a Navy veteran who served in the Battle of Normandy during World War II and is the inspiration behind the charity — had lived in both Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the 1950s.
In a Facebook post, the John S. Mulholland Family Foundation wrote that Loop “didn’t initially realize his continued support for us, but was touched by the sentiment of ‘turning a bad situation into something positive.’”