Besides founding the Play 60 program to encourage children to spend 60 minutes a day doing physical activity, the NFL also supports many other charitable brands and campaigns, like the October Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The force behind this charitable work is purely the NFL Players. We meet special athletes like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning with brother Eli, or Steve Young side by side with players who are under the radar like Nnamdi Asomugha and Warrick Dunn – and let’s not forget Charles “Peanut” Tilman.
Every person with knowledge of the NFL recognizes the name Peyton Manning. He is not an elite quarterback but a very giving human being. His charity, “Peyback Foundation,” provides a great deal for disadvantaged kids in Tennessee, Louisiana and Indiana. Manning is also a great donor of an undisclosed amount of money to St. VincentHospital in Indianapolis. The children’s wing was even renamed “Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital” at St. Vincent.
Peyton even enlisted his brother, Eli, to deliver supplies and necessities to the people of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina relief. The Dream Foundation, a charity which was founded by Drew Brees, partnered with Operation Kids after Hurricane Katrina hit the GulfCoast. Both charities worked to rebuild schools and athletic facilities in New Orleans as well as provide after-school mentor programs for children with learning needs. Drew Brees is also very involved in campaigns that raise awareness on gay teen suicides and helped with the clean-up recovery after the BP oil spill..
NFL’s Warrick Dunn is probably one of the most charitable players of all time. Warrick has received the Bart Starr Award, Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, “Whizzer” White NFL Man of the Year Award and has also received the Giant Steps Award from Bill Clinton. He challenged all NFL players to donate $5,000 each, resulting in a total of a $5 million donation to the Katrina Fund. Charity is very personal to Warrick. Since joining the NFL, Dunn worked very hard to provide support for single parents so they don’t have to go out and get second jobs. Dunn’s mom was killed in a robbery while she was working a second job. He provided over 100 homes for single parents through his charity “Home for the Holidays”.
The National Adviser for ASCEND (a Humanitarian Alliance) is another great quarterback, Steve Young. The program provides education, health and life skills mentoring to citizens of various countries in Africa and South America. His “Forever Young Foundation” provides athletic and academic opportunities to children with financial, physical or emotional problems.
Charles “Peanut” Tillman is an American football cornerback for the Chicago Bears and is the founder of the, “Charles Tillman Cornerstone Foundation.” This foundation provides support and opportunities for chronically and critically ill kids in the Chicago area (special trips to see the Chicago Bears and more).He is also a great supporter of the moms of these special children.
Nnamdi Asomugha is another recipient of the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Asomugha’s foundation provides food, shelter, medicine, vocational training, scholarships and literacy efforts to widows and orphans in Nigeria. These widows are victims of poverty and abuse.
So many more NFL players focus their efforts on the children and support them nationally and globally. These are the Insightful Players of this week. Kids everywhere are looking up to them – and rightfully so. God bless those players and inspire the rest of us to follow suit.
Until next time, Chrissy Carew Founder of Insightful Player, LLC
PS: The Insightful Player® Game on Lifeville is full of Life Lessons from NFL Players… what better role models for the kids of today than Professional Athletes… they are inspiring our youth! To play the game, go to: http://www.lifeville.com/games/insightful-player-game