Jacksonville, FL. -- Sometimes, a penalty can turn out to be a good thing.
That's the case for the North Florida School of Special Education. The school ended up with $10,000 in donations after Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Evan Engram was penalized for unnecessary roughness for retaliating against Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair's dirty hit that injured Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
Engram, who volunteers at the North Florida School of Special Education, was supporting the school in the Dec. 1 My Cause, My Cleats game against the Texans. When Al-Shaair led with his elbow and hit Lawrence as he slid following a scramble -- which resulted in a concussion -- and Engram immediately retaliated, fans donated to the school in support.
Jaguars fans pitched in with nearly $1,800 to the school in the days after the Dec. 1 game at EverBank Stadium, with most donations in the amount of $17 in honor of Engram's jersey number. When Engram found out about the donations, he chipped in an additional $8,200 to bring the total to $10,000, which the school said it will use to create the "Evan Engram Scholarship."
"This scholarship will directly impact the lives of our students with intellectual and developmental differences, helping them thrive in their educational journey," the school wrote in an Instagram post. "Evan, thank you for being a true champion on and off the field."
"Got a lot of tweets and a lot of mentions on social media about fans and people donating to the school, and honestly they're donating for what happened on the field, but I probably assume they went and did their research and saw what they were investing in and helping out," Engram said. "It's a great cause. It's a great place. They do great things every single day and any help is well appreciated."
Engram was fined $11,255 by the NFL for hitting Al-Shaair, and while he's not thrilled about writing that check, he is happy about being able to help the school he's been involved with since arriving in Jacksonville in 2022.
"Definitely very, very blessed and grateful for whatever did take place led to something really good," he said.