Crimson Tide Walk On Cycles To Save Lives

Amid the flurry of signing season, the announcement that place kicker Christian Kauffman from Memphis had been invited to walk on the Crimson Tide football team was sort of lost in the shuffle.

The Memphis University High School senior completed 18 of 19 field-goal attempts last season - the longest a cool 45 yards. He made 53 of 54 extra points and averaged 55.2 yards on kickoffs with seven touchbacks. He also carries a 4.7 GPA and is headed to The Capstone this fall on a full academic scholarship.

So to enjoy himself a bit for Spring Break, Kaufmann decided to just ride around on his bike - 3,000 miles, to be exact. He and classmate Cort Galiff cycled across the United States in just 29 days as part of an effort to raise funds for Living Water International, an organization that will use the money raised to build clean water wells in Haiti.

Drinking water for Haiti's 10 million residents is provided primarily by springs and wells. Even before the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the island nation on Jan. 12 only half the country's population had access to safe drinking water. After the disaster the country's fresh water and sewage systems pretty much ceased to exist and providing drinking water remains one of the key needs for recovery.

You can find out more about Kauffman's ride at the website The Water Cycle where you can still donate to Living Water's Haiti Initiative. And you can check out the kicking prospect booming some through the goal posts after the jump.