J.J. Weaver Named to SEC Community Service Team
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Senior outside linebacker J.J. Weaver has been named to the Southeastern Conference Community Service Team, it was announced Wednesday by the league office.
Weaver has been very active in his hometown community of Louisville, Kentucky, as well as the Lexington, Kentucky, community since 2015. In high school, he created a foundation called “15 for Freddie” to honor his grandfather, Freddie Weaver. The foundation visited and helped feed the homeless. That foundation morphed into “The Perfect Fit” when he came to UK as a freshman, inspired by his six-finger right hand and polydactyly, a condition in which a person or animal has more than five fingers or toes on one, or on each, hand or foot. “The Perfect Fit” has organized several community service projects, including one in 2023 called “The Perfect Fit Bike Drive” for which he donated 111 free bicycles for kids.
In 2022, he organized a free football camp for kids, and created an event called “Back to School with J.J.” for which he bought backpacks, school supplies and offered free haircuts for 100 children. This fall, with help from the Kentucky Center for Grieving Children and Families, he started a peer-led grief counseling group for the UK football team, the first of its kind. Plans are already underway to expand “The Perfect Fit Support Group” and offer the peer-led support group to the broader UK student body in 2024.
On the playing field, Weaver has totaled 40 tackles, including 6.5 tackles for loss with 5.0 sacks this season. He also has two pass breakups, two quarterback hurries, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble. He was recently honored as the co-SEC Defensive Player of the Week and won the Howard Schnellenberger Award as the Governor’s Cup’s Most Valuable Player after an impressive showing against No. 9 Louisville. He totaled eight tackles, two fumble recoveries, one caused fumble and a quarterback sack that also came in the fourth quarter. He turned the game on its head with game-changing defensive plays on consecutive possessions. First, he chased down Louisville running back Jawhar Jordan from behind late in the third quarter, stripping the football and then recovering his forced fumble, leading to a game-tying field goal. Minutes later, he fell on a fumble caused by teammate D’Eryk Jackson to set up a fourth quarter touchdown by Ray Davis to give the Wildcats their first lead.
Weaver is currently a semifinalist for the Jason Witten Man of the Year.
