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Tom Grossi greets fans during stop 13 of his \u201c30 in 30\u201d stadium tour at The Block Jax in Jacksonville on Wednesday. (Photo by Ryan Scarane\/WRUF)<\/p>\nTom Grossi hasn\u2019t slept more than two and a half hours a night in nearly two weeks, but he\u2019s never felt better.<\/p>\n
The 2024 NFL Fan of the Year and YouTube personality returned to Jacksonville Wednesday for stop 13 of 30 in his second \u201c30 in 30\u201d stadium tour, arriving in Duval County after stops in Miami and Tampa Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grossi first hit the road in 2023, visiting all 30 NFL stadiums in 30 consecutive days while raising more than $500,000 for St. Jude Children\u2019s Research Hospital. He promised a sequel if he reached one million YouTube subscribers \u2014 he hit that milestone in early 2026, and by May 29 he was back on the road again. With EverBank Stadium closed for reconstruction, Wednesday\u2019s stop landed at The Block Jax, a newly renovated outdoor venue 12 miles southeast of downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Repping a St. Jude T-shirt with the message, \u201cThis Shirt Saves Lives,\u201d Grossi appeared before over 200 fans chanting his name.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI got my name chanted. I still got goosebumps right now, man \u2026 people are so excited and they\u2019re hyped to be here,\u201d Grossi said. \u201cThere are people waiting six hours in line \u2026 to have people spend their time, their effort to get out here, I have to pay that back, because that\u2019s what they deserve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
To pay it back, Grossi met with every person queued to see him, exchanging conversation, autographing items and taking photos and videos with fans.<\/p>\n
Yet, Grossi never sees the task to connect with his fanbase as tiring. Across the seven-hour event, Grossi cherished each individual interaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll spend time with every single person, you get a handshake, you get an autograph, you get a picture, video for your friends, whatever you want, and I will just stay until it\u2019s done,\u201d Grossi said.<\/p>\n
Tom Grossi greets fans during stop 13 of his \u201c30 in 30\u201d stadium tour at The Block Jax in Jacksonville on Wednesday. (Photo by Ryan Scarane\/WRUF)<\/p>\n
Grossi began posting football content in 2015 after the Packers\u2019 NFC Championship loss to the Seattle Seahawks, while working as a high-school social studies teacher at the time. What started as reaction videos and podcasts grew into one of YouTube\u2019s largest football communities, eventually helping him surpass one million subscribers and launch fundraising efforts that have raised millions of dollars for St. Jude and other charities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the process, Grossi proved \u00a0any platform, big or small, can make a difference with the drive for goodwill and a community behind kids with cancer. \u201cIt\u2019s the greatest thing I could have possibly built,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
In Jacksonville, fans in Jaguars teal, Packers green and gold, and other NFL jerseys braved the heat to wait for hours outside in a single-file line for the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are able to come out and they want to represent their city, especially Jacksonville, who I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve ever gotten over the small-market comment \u2026 that\u2019s awesome and that\u2019s the beautiful side of fandom,\u201d Grossi said.<\/p>\n
Inside the event, there were no VIP upcharges, no ticket tiers and no sponsor backups. Grossi describes the environment as deliberately non-transactional: a meet-and-greet built around time, not money.<\/p>\n
Callan Kruma, a fan who first stumbled onto Grossi\u2019s YouTube while hunting for Packers\u2019 live streams, says watching a creator turn online energy into real-world impact hits harder in-person.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good to watch somebody that wants to do good \u2026 it should inspire all of us that are watching him and other YouTubers to want to do this exact thing,\u201d Kruma said.<\/p>\n
By the end of the night, the Jacksonville crowd turned that energy into real money for St. Jude \u2013 a few thousand dollars raised in a single stop, including a $500 in-person donation triggered by a running bit where Grossi shows his bare feet on stream for big gifts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime someone donates $500, I show my feet,\u201d Grossi said. \u201cIs it weird? Sure. But it\u2019s delightful now, because my feet have raised millions of dollars \u2014 that\u2019s just how this fanbase is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
All of the lines, chants and inside jokes only matter if they point back to one thing: helping families hear \u201cyour child has cancer\u201d without also hearing \u201cyou might lose everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
St. Jude offers at least one piece of solid ground in a chaotic moment. They step in and cover bills, housing, food and everyday needs for children with cancer and their families.<\/p>\n
Dawn Barrack, a St. Jude representative for Eastern Florida, said Grossi\u2019s efforts move the needle in two ways. \u201cWhat Tom is doing absolutely helps. It raises money that makes a significant difference, and it gets our name out to people who wouldn\u2019t usually know about St. Jude,\u201d Barrack said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The initial \u201c30 in 30\u201d tour led to an international trip on St. Jude\u2019s behalf, hospital visits, and conversations that reshaped how he thinks about the work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re having those conversations with a parent whose kid went through cancer treatment at St. Jude, or unfortunately did not make it, it\u2019s a sobering reminder [that] these are kids and the very real issue that\u2019s going on,\u201d Grossi said.<\/p>\n
Those stories reinforced his belief that the focus should be on people, not on credit or branding. He calls the approach of raising money without telling the charities in advance\u201cchaotic good,\u201d letting communities surprise them with the result.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The surprise checks and quiet gestures are the point for Grossi. Viral moments and subscriber milestones may fuel his nationwide tour, but he says the real measure is what ordinary fans choose to do with their shared love for football.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to have a million subscribers just to be a good person, and go do cool things just because,\u201d Grossi said. \u201cGo do good things because it\u2019s the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Grossi, Wednesday night in Jacksonville was proof enough before visiting Charlotte on Thursday and Atlanta on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunities of people are very much needed right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we can actually bring people together in a public space, and do it with no strings attached, not trying to sell them anything \u2013 let\u2019s just go and do more of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greatest Gators Moments Bracket \u2022 Sweet 8<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the greatest moment in Gators history? You decide.<\/p>\n
Closes Thu. June 19 \u2022 1:59 PM<\/p>\n
Left Bracket \u2022 Matchup 1<\/p>\n
2008 Football National Championship<\/p>\n
vs.<\/p>\n
1996 Football National Championship<\/p>\n
![\"Loading](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/loading.gif\" "\\"Loading")
\u00a0Loading …<\/p>\n
Left Bracket \u2022 Matchup 2<\/p>\n
2006 Football National Championship<\/p>\n
vs.<\/p>\n
2017 College World Series Title<\/p>\n
\u00a0Loading …<\/p>\n
Right Bracket \u2022 Matchup 3<\/p>\n
2006 Men\u2019s Basketball Title<\/p>\n
vs.<\/p>\n
Tebow\u2019s \u201cPromise\u201d Speech (2008)<\/p>\n
\u00a0Loading …<\/p>\n
Right Bracket \u2022 Matchup 4<\/p>\n
Gymnastics Three-Peat (2013\u201315)<\/p>\n
vs.<\/p>\n
2007 Men\u2019s Basketball Title (Repeat)<\/p>\n
\u00a0Loading …<\/p>\n
Category: Feature Sports News<\/a>, Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Grossi hasn\u2019t slept more than two and a half hours a night in nearly two weeks, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-305440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}