Tampa Bay Buccaneers donate $10,000 to family of Baker Mayfield fan killed in car accident
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have donated $10,000 to the family of a Baker Mayfield fan who was killed in a car accident on his way to the Monday Night Football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, per Jenna Laine of ESPN.
The fan, Connor Barba, was 18. His mother, Megan Barnett, had surprised her son with tickets ahead of his birthday so he could see Mayfield, his favorite player. Barnett suffered serious injuries in the accident. Mayfield said through a Buccaneers spokesperson that he and his wife, Emily, plan to reach out to the family.
“My thoughts and prayers go out to Megan and her family as they deal with this heartbreaking loss. I am honored and humbled knowing that Connor was such a big fan. I would have loved to have met him,” Mayfield said in a statement. “As a new parent, this really hits home for me.
“I realize there are no words that can provide true comfort at a time such as this, but I hope that Megan makes a full recovery and that she draws strength from the outpouring of support she is receiving from around the country.”
Baker Mayfield tragically loses life in car accident
According to George Stoia of SoonerScoop.com, Barba was a native of Norman, Oklahoma. Mayfield spent the last three years of his collegiate career quarterbacking the Sooners.
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“He was a football fan in general and a big-time Baker fan,” Barba’s uncle, Collin Barnett, told “Good Morning America” this week. “He wanted to see Baker play. It was just going to be a great game.”
The tragic accident occurred in Montgomery, Kansas, just before 4 p.m. on Nov. 2. The Kansas Highway Patrol said that a 2014 Chevrolet Camaro veered into the other lane of a two-lane road and hit Barba, the driver of the vehicle, and Barnett head-on. The driver of the Camaro, Joseph Savage, lost his life as well.
Barnett remains in the ICU at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“We were told that the [other car] was in Connor’s lane, and Connor swerved, [and] that he hit the brakes tremendously hard and got Megan out of the way,” Collin Barnett said. “He took the full impact and was kind of heroic in that.”