Mark Barron, Senior Bowl join for Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. Mark Inabinett
For the fifth consecutive year, former Alabama All-American Mark Barron is providing Thanksgiving turkeys for families in the Mobile area.
This holiday season, Barron is partnering with the Reese’s Senior Bowl and Feeding the Gulf Coast.
From noon to 5 p.m. CST Sunday, the Senior Bowl will host the Turkey Bowl Classic at Hancock-Whitney Stadium. Inside South Alabama’s stadium, eight youth football games will be played. Outside the stadium, Senior Bowl staff, Feeding the Gulf Coast representatives, Ambassador Club members and Barron will assemble more than 1,500 Thanksgiving meal kits, including turkeys, to give away during the event.
Barron will continue the holiday giveaway from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday at Prichard City Hall, where he plans to hand out 750 more turkeys. Family representatives will be able to drive through to get their turkeys.
“My goal is for families to come together and have a meal over the holidays,” Barron said in a release from the Senior Bowl. “The pandemic separated so many people and brought a lot of challenges. I understand firsthand how it can be to figure out life in the midst of hard times. I want to do my part in helping families and the community.”
The Turkey Bowl Classic’s day of play will feature youngsters from 8 through 12 years old. The winning teams will receive medals and the day’s Most Valuable Player will be presented the Turkey Bowl Classic Trophy by Barron.
The Senior Bowl also will present its 2022 Future Prospects Team at 1:45 p.m. Sunday.
“The Turkey Bowl Classic is a perfect way to kick off the Thanksgiving holiday,” said Jim Nagy, the executive director of the Senior Bowl. “One of our main focuses here at the Senior Bowl is to make a positive impact in our local community, and this event accomplishes that on various levels by supporting youth tackle football, honoring our area’s top high school football players, and most importantly, helping feed families across Mobile and Baldwin counties.
“We want to thank Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, Mark Barron, Greer’s Market and Feeding the Gulf Coast for all their support in making this event happen. We look forward to the Turkey Bowl becoming a yearly tradition that people look forward to around the holidays.”
Barron was an All-State linebacker for St. Paul’s Episcopal in 2007, when the Mobile school posted a 14-1 record and won the AHSAA Class 5A championship.
At Alabama, Barron earned All-SEC recognition in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and All-American selection in 2011 as a safety and played on two national championship teams. He entered the NFL as the seventh player picked in the 2012 draft.
During 119 NFL regular-season games, including 102 starts, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers, Barron made 710 tackles, recorded 12 sacks, intercepted nine passes, broke up 42 passes, forced five fumbles and recovered four fumbles. He also played in four postseason games, including Super Bowl LIII, as he moved from safety to outside linebacker to inside linebacker during his NFL career.
Barron hasn’t played since the 2019 season.
Last season, Barron sustained a hamstring injury during preseason practices with the Denver Broncos. He ended up on injured reserve and didn’t return to the active roster until Nov. 25. After being designated a game-day inactive four times, Barron was released by the Broncos on Dec. 22.
Barron has remained unsigned in 2021.