Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill donate $17K combined to TuAnon GoFundMe after founder's death

One of the fun, quirkier stories of the 2022 offseason revolved around a Miami Dolphins fan Twitter account called TuAnon. The account posted cryptic video messages with an unknown Dolphin-wearing person speaking with a muffled voice in support of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

But on Friday, the account tweeted that one of the original creators of the persona, Eric Carmona, died at the age of 30 in a motorcycle accident. Carmona left behind a wife and four children. The rest of the TuAnon created a GoFundMe in his honor.

The fundraiser has already received thousands of dollars in donations, but the biggest came from the quarterback who inspired the account in the first place after Tagovailoa himself donated $10,000. Tagovailoa later told reporters he made the donation "out of respect" to Carmona for the positivity around him and the Dolphins.

Tagovailoa wasn't the only member of the NFL world to support the fundraiser. Samantha Van Ginkel, the wife of Dolphins linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, donated $1,000, Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel donated $1,000, NFL Network analyst Peter Schrager donated $300 and Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill donated $7,000.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Carmona's GoFundMe reached $63,611 in donations.