Detroit Lions DE Trey Flowers donates 4,000 meals to hospital workers

 

• Kory Woods
• October 19, 2020

When Trey Flowers signed with the Detroit Lions, he immediately stated his intent to ingratiate himself in the community through community service.

Before the Lions grabbed their second victory of the season yesterday, he continued those efforts.

And he did it was a familiar brand in community.

Through his Flowers of the Future Foundation, he partnered with Happy’s Pizza to donate over 4,000 meals to staff workers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. From their Oak Park and several Detroit locations, the Michigan-based pizza chain created food boxes consisting of “Happy’s Wings” and french fries.

Chelsea Phillips, director of public relations for Flowers of the Future, spoke about last week’s events’ eagerness.

“We were looking to give back in a major way.”, said Phillips.

“During the pandemic, we wanted to do something, but still figure out how to do it with being socially distanced. Trey decided to feed Henry Ford Hospital frontline workers, and it’s a total of 4,000 meals that we are giving back over four days. Wednesday was 1,000, Thursday was 1,000, and this week it’ll be 2,000 more.”

Last week wasn’t the first time Flowers’ foundation and Happy’s Pizza partnered together. In December 2019, they worked together on a tv giveback for Methodist Children’s Home Society in Redford.

Mark Wolok, vice president of business development for Happy’s Pizza, was eager to partner with Flowers and his organization again.

“Trey wanted Happy’s [Pizza] because he’s familiar with our product.”, said Wolok.

“And Happy himself reached back out. We created a partnership. And we wanted to give, wanted to support and show our love to the community. As you know, Trey is a big part of the Lions, which is Detroit. Happy’s is a Detroit-based company, 25 years. And they just wanted to put love together, bring the partnership together, and thank all of the Henry Ford Hospital people for all of what they’re doing right now in the current times.”

You can find out more about Flowers’ community efforts in Detroit by following its Instagram page @flowersofthefuturefoundation.

5 surprising findings from college football coaches salaries report

 

Steve BerkowitzTom Schad

USA TODAY

Published 11:37 a.m. ET Oct 14, 2020 | Updated 9:27 a.m. ET Oct 15, 2020

First-year Michigan State coach Mel Tucker’s pay has more than doubled from a year ago, with his total compensation at $5.06 million this season.

 

Dozens of head coaches across the Football Bowl Subdivision have taken pay cuts this year as schools deal with the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

But even with those reductions, they're still making more money than ever.

USA TODAY Sports' annual review of coaches' compensation found that the average total pay for FBS head coaches in 2020-21 is $2.7 million, a 1.1% increase from last year's average. Those figures include the pay reductions that some coaches are taking this year.

In the absence of a global pandemic, the 122 FBS coaches for whom USA TODAY Sports could obtain scheduled compensation figures would have made $2.79 million on average, a 4.5% jump from last year. 

Alabama's Nick Saban, who is slated to make $9.3 million, is once again the highest-paid coach in the country, followed by LSU's Ed Orgeron ($8.9 million) and Clemson's Dabo Swinney ($8.3 million). Saban has now been college football's highest-paid coach in seven of the past nine years.

Here are five other findings from the latest coaches' compensation data, which USA TODAY Sports has been compiling and analyzing on an annual basis since 2006.

► USA TODAY Sports found some trends in pay cuts being taken by coaches in different conferences. For example, every public-school head coach in both the Big 12 and Big Ten took a voluntary pay reduction in the wake of the pandemic. In the SEC, cuts have been rare, affecting coaches at only four of the 13 public schools: Arkansas, Missouri, Ole Miss and South Carolina.

The Group of Five, meanwhile, had a few interesting outliers. Only one public-school head coach in the Mountain West, Boise State's Bryan Harsin, has taken a voluntary pay cut. And in the MAC, only one coach (Buffalo's Lance Leipold) has not.

► It's not surprising that there is a difference in coaching salaries between Power Five schools and Group of Five schools, but the size of the gap is notable. This year, the average Power Five coach is making nearly $4.4 million in total compensation – more than four times the compensation for the average Group of Five coach.

► Buyout clauses are still booming. This year, at least five coaches would be owed $30 million or more if they were fired without cause by Dec. 1, led by Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher ($53.1 million). And more than half of Power Five coaches (33) have buyouts of $10 million or more.

► Nothing helps a coach's wallet like a national championship run. LSU coach Ed Orgeron accrued more than $1.77 million in bonuses last year, which means he made more in bonus payments alone than at least 50 FBS coaches made in total compensation during the same time period.

► It's good to be first-year Michigan State coach Mel Tucker. Tucker's pay has more than doubled from a year ago, when he held the same position at Colorado, and increased six-fold since 2017, when he was an assistant at Georgia. His total compensation for 2020 ($5.06 million) ranks 14th in USA TODAY Sports' database.

Ditto for Ryan Day. Three years ago, Day was making $400,000 as an assistant coach at Ohio State. Now, he's due to make $5.6 million in total compensation in 2020, and his pay will climb to $7.6 million by 2022.

Follow Steve Berkowitz on Twitter @ByBerkowitz. Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad. 

Week 6 opponent: What the Jaguars are saying

 

Oct 14, 2020 at 02:17 PM

Tim Twentyman

Senior Writer

 

Every week during the regular season we get an opportunity to talk with the opposing head coach via conference call. This week it was Jacksonville head coach Doug Marrone.

 

Here's what he had to say:

 

2. Marrone was asked about Detroit's offense and he went through the logical list of threats, but he particularly noted the play of Detroit's tight ends, especially T.J. Hockenson, who Marrone said "is really starting to come on" and having a "hell of a year."

 

Hockenson leads Detroit in receptions (15), receiving yards (180) and is tied for the team lead with two touchdown grabs. Jacksonville's allowed tight ends to catch 21 passes for 328 yards and four scores in five games this season.