Watt raises $27M in Hurricane Harvey relief

J.J. Watt’s online fundraiser to aid flood victims of Hurricane Harvey is now over $27 million and the Houston Texans All-Pro defensive end says Sunday’s season opener is “going to be special.”

A $5 million donation from the Texas-based H-E-B grocery chain on Wednesday is the largest to the online campaign started by Watt, continuing to surpass his target goals from more than 189,000 donors at YouCaring.com.

H-E-B president Scott McClelland presented Watt with the check on behalf of company owner Charles Butt.

“There are no words to describe when someone steps up to the plate like this,” Watt said.

Late night talk show host and comedian Jimmy Fallon contributed $1 million to Watt’s flood relief fund.

“I’m proud to say our show, ‘The Tonight Show’ is donating $1 million to J.J.’s fund,” Fallon said on his NBC show Tuesday night. “Thank you, J.J.”

Watt started the relief effort with $100,000 of his own money and had an initial goal of $200,000, meeting that target within just two hours.

The Texans open the season at NRG Stadium on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“It’s going to be special,” Watt said Wednesday. “This is so much bigger than a game, but for three hours on Sunday we want to take people’s minds off of everything that just happened. We want to give them an escape from everything that just happened. I know for a fact that our guys are going to give every single thing that we have to make sure we put a smile on this city’s face.”