A business partner of Lynch’s, Jeremy Castro, said that he helped the four-time Pro Bowl honoree deliver 40,000 masks on Tuesday and Wednesday. That included a shipment of 10,000 to Oakland’s Highland Hospital, where Castro said Lynch was born.

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“They had a team of about 50 people out there to meet us. Marshawn brightens everybody’s day when he shows up,” Castro, who celebrated his 43rd birthday Tuesday, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “The Highland Hospital people were beyond amazed.”

By Wednesday, many Bay Area counties, including San Francisco and Alameda, had enacted requirements for people to wear face coverings in public to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Among Lynch’s other stops were a visit to a food bank and to a supportive housing community for the poor and homeless. His mother, Delisa Lynch, proudly took note on social media, exclaiming, “I told y’all I got a real one here!!!!”

Lynch stayed in the Bay Area to play college football at Cal-Berkeley before becoming a first-round draft pick by the Buffalo Bills in 2007. He came out of retirement in 2017 to play two seasons for the Oakland Raiders, then un-retired again late last season to help the Seahawks cope with a spate of injuries to their running backs while making a playoff run.

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Nominated by the Raiders in 2018 for the NFL’s Walter Payton man of the year award, Lynch has long been active in helping those in need, particularly in the East Bay. His initiatives include Fam 1st Family Foundation, which is focused on underserved youth, and Phones for the Homeless.

A representative for Lynch did not immediately reply Thursday to a request for comment on the latest act of public service by “Beast Mode.”