Football Fans Help Former Stallions Linebacker Cover Medical Costs
Apr 5, 2019, 10:47 AM | Updated: 11:27 am
(Tom Smart, Deseret News)
(Tom Smart, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Days after the Alliance of American Football abruptly closed their inaugural season, two weeks before the regular season concludes, players have been left in the dust.
One player in particular is former Utah and Salt Lake Stallions linebacker Gionni Paul. He broke his arm during their win against San Diego, their last game. When the AAF announced that the league will stop play, they also are not covering medical insurance for players who were injured during the season.
Since then, a fan from Bingham Canyon, Utah, Branden Hockenbury started a GoFundMe account to help cover medical costs for Paul. Not even 23 hours after the account was posted, fans raised $2,040 of the $3,000 goal.
The GoFundMe account can be found HERE.
After the AAF shut down, other reports have surfaced that players and staff had to pay for their own plane ticket to fly home and cover their hotel costs.
One thing I am told in regards to #AAF players having to buy their own plane tickets home is that detail was part of an exit strategy outlined by the AAF a couple of weeks ago for standard end-of-season procedures. Hoping to find out more about that, but just for some context.
— Ben Kercheval (@BenKercheval) April 4, 2019
Before the injury, Paul had a great season, where he led the team in tackles in multiple games. He played two seasons with the University of Utah from 2014-15, where he was named First-team All-Pac-12 after the 2015 season. After his college career, he was on the training camp roster with the Cincinnati Bengals, before joining the BC Lions and Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.
