Cowboys, Texans Donating $400K Each in Wake of Texas School Shooting

Players from the Houston Texans are donating $200,000 to the Robb School Memorial Fund, an official account to aid the families of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the site of last week's mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.

Texans owner Cal McNair is matching the donation, per NFL.com, bringing the total to $400,000.

The Dallas Cowboys and the NFL Foundation are combining to make the same donation as well:

"Well, it said exactly what we know on the inside—we have real, quality men that pay attention," Texans head coach Lovie Smith told reporters regarding the players' donation. "We want our team to be involved in what's happening in our world, in our country, and that's a way to show it."

The team also wore shirts on Wednesday in support of the victims of the Uvalde massacre and to raise awareness about gun violence:

"We want the world to know, we're here to help," Texans linebacker Christian Kirksey added. "We're not just football players."

McNair also released a statement about the donations.

"Texans care about Texans, especially in times of triumph and tragedy," he wrote. "I'm so proud of our players for championing this effort and was inspired to support our neighbors in Uvalde alongside them. I also know we have a great responsibility to lend our voices to important and meaningful conversations that bring awareness to senseless gun violence."

Firearms are now the leading cause of death for children in the United States, with 1,560 children and adolescents dying by guns in 2021 and 653 such deaths already in 2022.

Per a report from the University of San Francisco and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health studying data from 2015, "the U.S. accounted for almost 97 percent of the firearm deaths among children four years old or younger, and 92 percent of firearm deaths for those between the ages of five and 14" among 29 nations studied (h/t Laurel Wamsley of NPR).