Lions Offensive Lineman Reveals Significant Donation to New York

Detroit Lions offensive lineman Oday Aboushi is all about paying it forward, and he proved that again last week by making a major donation to help people directly.

Aboushi donated 35,000 pounds of food to help Harlem in the wake of the city battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s a look at the trucks rolling in and how the day went:

Aboushi commented on the reasoning behind the donation in an interview on the Jim Rome Show. Here’s a look at what he said.

“I know it’s been a tough time for New York City so, doing everything we could to do our part as a fellow New Yorker, as a fellow human to give back and try to support people as much as we can during this time,” he explained in the interview to Rome.

Aboushi himself hails from Brooklyn, New York so helping out his home city is an amazing thing to see indeed. As Aboushi said, feeling the thanks for what he and others were able to put together for the city was something he was very excited for.

“Honestly, it was overwhelming with the kind of gratitude we were able to feel with people,” he said. “Overall, it was an amazing effort by the community, an amazing effort by a lot of people across the board. Teamwork makes the dream work and we were able to help out Harlem as much as we could.”

Aboushi is planning donations in the future, with the next round perhaps expected to help Staten Island. It’s excellent to see Aboushi touching folks directly with these donations.

Oday Aboushi Stats

The offensive lineman signed with the Lions in the 2019 offseason and played a rotational role with the team’s group last year. Detroit re-signed Aboushi this offseason, and the lineman has played in 49 games with 34 starts under his belt. In 2013, Aboushi was a 5th round pick of the New York Jets out of Virginia, where he was second and first team All-ACC in 2011 and 2012.

Since joining the Lions, Aboushi seems to love the fit in his new city, something he explained to Rome in the interview.

“Detroit, right off the bat, you get the sense of a blue collar city that’s had so much happen to them. Detroit, Michigan, you go through that city and you feel nothing but a sense of work. We feed off of that as players. We see that mentality fans have. The city, it’s been through a lot so it’s time for the right things to happen. We’re always motivated by our fans.”

Lions fans hope Aboushi can help deliver big things in 2020.

Lions Competition Along Offensive Line

The Lions have an interesting situation brewing at guard with Aboushi, Beau Benzschawel, Josh Garnett, Russell Bodine and Joe Dahl. Rookies Jonah Jackson and Logan Stenberg were added in the draft. As it stands today, this group seems weaker than having Graham Glasgow in the mix himself, which is obvious given how solid and stout Glasgow was up front for the team.

Additionally, Tyrell Crosby could be in the mix if the team elects to use him at guard instead of tackle, but he figures to slot in at tackle for the team in 2020 given the newfound depth at guard after the draft.

It’s pretty safe to say seeing what happens at guard will be the major question and the major issue to watch the rest of the offseason and whenever workouts might resume. Aboushi has a chance to be a key veteran contributor along the team’s offensive front.

In the meantime, however, it’s wonderful to see him helping out in a big way this offseason.

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