Jalen Tabor gives shoes to homeless man, meets one-on-one with Gators fans

Football

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Image Credit: ESPNI

By all accounts, Florida Gators junior cornerback Jalen Tabor is a happy, fun-loving guy. So much so that the Gators went out of their way to trot Tabor out publicly by sending him on a trip to New York to do national interviews and prepare himself for the 2017 NFL Draft.

Tabor’s relentless trash talk of Tennessee has also been a highlight of Florida’s offseason with fans, his teammates and even head coach Jim McElwain supporting the confidence he has in the Gators entering the 2016 season.

Most of the good will Tabor seemed to have compiled took a hit last week, however, when McElwain announced that his star defender would miss Florida’s season opener while serving a suspension. Tabor and redshirt sophomore tight end C’yontai Lewis got into a “nasty fight” during practice, leading both players to be suspended from practice until Thursday and held out of UF’s Week 1 contest against UMass on Sept 3.

Part of Tabor’s suspension included him not being able to attend Florida’s Fan Day. This year, the Gators held the event at the team’s new indoor practice facility, and fans in attendance told OnlyGators.com that it one of the best they have been to in years, if not ever.

Tabor apologized on Twitter for not being able to sign autographs and take pictures, leading some fans to see if there was another way those could be acquired. Tabor responded by taking time out of his day to meet up with fans, take pictures and sign autographs.

That same day, Tabor saw a homeless man near a convenience store just outside campus and noticed he did not have any shoes. After walking by the man, he returned the next day with more than $20 and a pair of Adidas, a gift giving he documented both on his Twitter and Periscope accounts.

Unfortunately, those positive actions took a slight turn again Sunday when Tabor took to Twitter to blame Lewis for getting him suspended from the program. Since that incident, which included two of the three tweets he sent being deleted, Tabor has either deactivated his account or changed his username to something no one knows at this time.