As he spent the last 100 days dribbling a soccer ball from Gillette Stadium outside of Boston to Washington, D.C., Ethan Zohn had moments of great celebrity — the former Survivor: Africa winner was greeted in some places like a hero — and moments of great humility.
There’s nothing like the monotony of 12-15 lonely miles a day along the side of I-95.
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“People sometimes pulled over to the side of the road and handed me 20 bucks,” said Zohn, who was flanked by D.C. United’s Ben Olsen and the Washington Freedom’s Rebecca Moros as he finished the 550-mile journey Monday at the Jefferson Memorial. “They were buying T-shirts out of the back of my car. I don’t think you could do that with any other sport. You’re not going to see some NBA player dribbling across the nation.”
The effort raised over $150,000 for Grassroot Soccer, an organization he helped found which uses soccer to further HIV/AIDS education in Africa. Zohn himself was slowed by a torn ACL suffered in a charity match in New York City, but he isn’t afraid of continuing to use the “currency” of his name recognition for the cause that has become his life’s mission.
“Why not dribble across the UK? Why not dribble from Johannesburg to Cape Town?” said Zohn. “I can just see it in Africa, the Forrest Gump of football and all them coming out and chasing after me. We didn’t get that as much as we wanted here. But in Africa, it would be awesome.”
