Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, NFL contributing $800K to families affected by Uvalde school shooting

by Olafimihan Oshin - 06/01/22 5:28 PM ET

Associated Press/Eric Gay
A visitor places bracelets on crosses at a memorial as he and others pay their respects to the victims killed in last week’s Robb Elementary School shooting on May 31, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.

The Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans, along with the NFL, have announced plans to contribute up to $800,000 to support the families impacted by the shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

In a statement on Wednesday, the league said its foundation and the Cowboys will donate a combined $400,000, with $200,000 going to the Robb School Memorial Fund.

The Houston Texans also announced that it will donate up to $400,000 to the fund, matching donations from its players.

The Robb School Memorial Fund was created in collaboration with the OneStar Foundation and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, with 100 percent of donations going toward families of victims and survivors of the massacre.

The other $200,000 donated by the NFL and Cowboys will be directed toward the Uvalde Strong Fund, which was established to support residents and organizations in the community addressing mental health issues and trauma.

“The $800,000 total will support the families of the victims, survivors, and the Uvalde community as they seek to recover from this senseless tragedy,” the NFL said in a statement.

The donations come in the wake of last week’s shooting, in which a gunman walked into a fourth-grade classroom and killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Wednesday called for special legislative committees to be formed in the wake of the mass shooting.

The Department of Justice on Sunday also announced it would review the law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting after officials gave conflicting accounts of how local police and federal authorities handled the situation.

The NFL, along with the Buffalo Bills, contributed $400,000 in an effort to support the city’s East Side neighborhood last month in the wake of a separate shooting massacre at a Tops Friendly Market, which resulted in the deaths of 10 people.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Dallas Cowboys Executive Vice President Charlotte Jones expressed her condolences to the families and victims of the Uvalde shooting.

“Our hearts are broken for the families affected by the senseless tragedy that occurred in Uvalde, Texas on May 24th, 2022,” Jones said. “There are simply no words to describe the pain and sorrow that we feel for the Uvalde community. We hold them tight in our thoughts and continued prayers.”