{"id":767772,"date":"2026-02-22T00:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/767772\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T00:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T00:38:18","slug":"penn-state-football-players-donate-nil-money-to-thon-fundraiser-matt-campbell-vows-to-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/767772\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State football players donate NIL money to THON fundraiser, Matt Campbell vows to match"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend, Penn State<\/a> hosts its THON Weekend to help raise money for childhood cancer. The 46-hour dance marathon officially began on Friday, and the Nittany Lions\u2019 football team also donated.<\/p>\n

Offensive lineman Cooper Cousins<\/a> told reporter Saturday that the players contributed NIL<\/a> money to contribute to a THON fund. The idea came from EDGE Max Granville<\/a> after he brought it up in a team meeting, and head coach Matt Campbell<\/a> vowed to double the players\u2019 donations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have the capability to sick up for something bigger than ourselves right now,\u201d Cousins said, via Inside The Lions\u2019 Audrey Snyder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cousins also told reporters about how Campbell and the new Penn State coaching staff emphasize giving back. There are multiple ways for the players to help around the community, and the new staff has also embraced Gannon Kupko, the young fan who went viral for motivating the program last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy biggest thing is giving back to the community,\u201d Cousins said Saturday<\/a>. \u201cHaving the opportunities that Coach Campbell provided for us \u2026 it\u2019s incredible. There\u2019s about two or three opportunities a week to go to elementary schools, read, go to recess with kids. Every Tuesday, we pack lunches for kids that are less fortunate so they can eat lunch and actually have a lunch at the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, on the weekends, we\u2019re doing stuff with the [Bryce Jordan Center]. You\u2019re packing more lunches, you\u2019re packing dinners for people. All that stuff with Gannon, as well. They\u2019re bringing him here. They\u2019re embracing it. I\u2019d say that\u2019s the coolest part about the vision that I have, but the whole team has, really, since Day 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

THON families were in the Penn State football facilities as part of the festivities. Last year\u2019s event raised $17.7 million for the more than 4,800 families who have been impacted by pediatric cancer.<\/p>\n

It also marks an opportunity for some of the new faces to come together and bond with their teammates to help raise money for the cause. That, according to offensive lineman Anthony Donkoh<\/a>, is a big part of why the weekend is so special.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s super humbling,\u201d Donkoh said. \u201cAnytime you\u2019re able to do any experiences like this, it\u2019s very humbling because we\u2019re granted and given a lot of things in this world. God blessed us with a lot of things. For us to see these families and see what they\u2019re going through, their daily struggles and stuff like that, it\u2019s extremely humbling<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, if we\u2019re feeling bad for doing what we\u2019re doing when we\u2019re doing something that we love and what we prayed for, and people are fighting every day for their child and their kid is fighting every day to stay alive, it really brings into perspective what our actual issues are. They\u2019re not as big as they seem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend, Penn State hosts its THON Weekend to help raise money for childhood cancer. The 46-hour dance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[109190,7,42232,1788],"class_list":{"0":"post-767772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-cooper-cousins-24-mcdowell","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-matt-campbell-98-perry","11":"tag-regwall"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116111494714917129","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}