The San Francisco 49ers hosted the Paradise High School football team during Monday night's game against the New York Giants. Paradise, of course, is the town that was devastated by the Northern California wildfire that has claimed several lives and thousands of structures. Most of Paradise is gone, leaving the majority of the players on the team, as the community, without homes.
#49ers GM John Lynch welcomes the Paradise High football team, which had to forfeit its playoff dreams because of fire devastation pic.twitter.com/ESFDDh3Kcu
— Daniel Brown (@mercbrownie) November 13, 2018
The 49ers are doing what they can to support the victims of the fires. Several players, including George Kittle, DeForest Buckner, Kyle Juszczyk, Matt Breida, and Joe Staley have donated autographed game-worn jerseys from Monday night's game to be auctioned off in an effort to raise money for those in need.
The auction went live after the game and can be found here. At the time of this post, quarterback Nick Mullens' jersey has the highest bid at $1,050 with over six days remaining.
Proceeds from Monday night's 50/50 Raffle at Levi's Stadium are going to North Valley Community Foundation (NVCF) to help the fire victims. The 49ers provided a dollar-for-dollar match to all contributions.
Veteran cornerback Richard Sherman was asked after the game about the team's efforts to help its neighboring community during this time of need. He spoke at length, sharing how proud he is to be part of an organization dedicated to lending a helping hand.
"Obviously, it's incredibly important," Sherman said. "It's just people helping people. At this point in our lives, I think in this point in our nation's history, the history that's being written right now, people aren't helping enough people. People aren't caring for each other anymore.
"Everybody's dividing themselves. Obviously, the president is at the forefront of that. But there aren't enough people just saying, 'Hey, I don't care what you look like. I know you're my neighbor,' and help your neighbor.
"I think the 49ers are doing a good job of that, and obviously, as players, we have a responsibility to do the best we can to help that situation. I appreciate being part of an organization that takes the steps to go out and help their community.
"We're just football players. That's what they always say. They say we're just football players. Stay out of the way. Stay out of politics. Stick to the game. But we feel like it's our obligation to go out there and help our community in any way we can and obviously, [the Paradise High School] football team is going through a lot. That community is going through unbelievable tragedy, and if we can help put a smile on their face for five minutes, we've got to do that.
"If we can help financially, with our time, with our energy, with our work, we're going to do that."
