The Buffalo Bills have some awesome fans regardless of the product on the field.
According to Darren Rovell, Bills fans rallied together to raise $100K in 58 hours after a story broke describing the former Bills linebacker as “being broken mentally, physically and financially.”
The money was raised by more that 2,200 donors in a crowd funding campaign posted by a Bills fan named Frank Croisdale.
“I’m not surprised about the fans of the Buffalo Bills, what they did with their hearts and with their pocket books,” Croisdale said. “I am surprised by the number, the magnitude and the speed at which it took off.”
Croisdale, the director of tourism for a hotel in Niagara Falls, Ontario, posted the campaign through the website GoFundMe after reading about Talley’s plight in a Buffalo News story that day.
The 54-year-old Talley, who played with the Bills from 1982 through 1994, said he suffers from depression, lost his business and has thought about suicide.
“I’m not convinced I’m dead yet, but the future doesn’t look bright,” Talley told the newspaper.
“After reading that story, one name popped into my head: Junior Seau,” Croisdale said. “I didn’t want to read about Darryl in the same way.”
Croisdale’s goal was to raise $100,000 in a month, if at all.
Some 58 hours after he threw the first $100 in, the goal was reached.
“This shows what an incredible bond Bills and Mountaineers fans (Talley played college football at West Virginia) had for Darryl,” Croisdale said. “Time might have even deepened our love for him.”
Talley gets $39,000 annually from the NFL’s total permanent disability policy, but his home of 17 years was foreclosed on and he currently rents.
GoFundMe spokesperson Kelsea Little said the site will transfer the money directly to Talley through his wife Janine, who Croisdale has been in touch with.
The site takes a five percent fee from each donation, and the payment partner takes out another 2.9 percent, she said.