Thanks to Htownsportsfan for posting this thread at Texans Talk . I posted it here because I think the story should be spread across the Texans Blogosphere. TMZ originally broke the story .
In Htownsportsfan's words:
Johnson ordered 750 bicycles to be given to underprivileged kids at an event sponsored by the Andre Johnson Non Profit Foundation. In return for the purchase, Wal-Mart agreed to donate water and ice for the May 3 event.
But there was a problem.
Johnson had ordered the bikes in various sizes for both older and younger kids. But the bikes didn't comes as ordered (more small than large), so Johnson only purchased 677 -- at full retail price, mind you.
Well, Wal-Mart didn't take too kindly to this, so on the day of the event (it was 84 degrees out) they wouldn't fork over the water or the ice. AJ's people were told that Wal-Mart would not be donating the ice because they hadn't purchased the 73 remaining bikes. That's cold!
I'm betting that AJ put up the money to pay for water, ice and anything else he needed to make his event a success.
I wanted to get a post about this up right away. I'm going to make some calls and see what else can be dug up on this story. I'll try to post a follow-up later this week.