Last September, Kiko Alonso watched as Puerto Rico, the place where his father grew up, was gutted by Hurricane Maria. The Dolphins linebacker had seen how J.J. Watt had started a wildly successful fundraising campaign for Hurricane Harvey victims in Houston weeks earlier, so he decided to follow Watt’s lead. Alonso started a YouCaring.com page and raised about $165,000, of which he donated $25,000 himself. It wasn’t the $37 million Watt raised, but it was a start.
In January, after the Dolphins’ season ended, Alonso took a trip to Puerto Rico with his older brother Carlos.