The Eagles can’t work out and do football things together at the moment, but they found something more important to do yesterday.
Via Tim McManus of ESPN.com, more than 70 Eagles employees and families, including coach Doug Pederson and his wife, gave blood at an American Red Cross drive at Lincoln Financial Field.
The drive collected 74 pints, which has the potential to help 222 patients, at a time when supplies are running short nationwide.
Donation stations were spread throughout the Club level at the stadium, and Pederson showed up wearing an Eagles-logo protective mask to make his donation.
“As soon as the email went out, one of the first text messages I got was from Coach asking if he and Jeannie could donate. They were the like first ones to reach out and sign up, which was awesome,” Eagles president Don Smolenski said. “He’s just been very active. He participates, he’s engaged, he’s involved, he cares and all of that just comes through. It’s authentic to who they are and when they sign up and participate, it just shows how much they support the community but also for our staff and other people who come to donate, it sends a very positive message that what they’re doing is important and meaningful and appreciated and it goes a long way.”
Earlier this offseason, which feels like years ago, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie donated $1 million to establish the University of of Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 Immunology Defense Fund, creating a research program to test front-line health care workers for potential immunity to COVID-19 and other research protocols to combat the disease.
