With the Super Bowl in North Texas this Sunday, NFL players past and present are arriving for celebrity and charity events. And many of those events are aimed at helping local children.
It’s not often that a Washington Redskins Hall of Famer receives a lot of love from Cowboys fans, but on Thursday morning at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Houston native Darrell Green put one of the best rivalries in sports on hold to help out the community.
“The Super Bowl is huge and I don't want to leave anybody out,” the retired cornerback said. “It’s the big dinners, all of the big things, but there are kids who are not economically able to participate and kids who, healthwise, can't, so my attitude is let's go find those people and try to celebrate with them.”
Green and some of his NFL friends did just that by putting on the Super Kids Bowl at Cook Children’s, to help raise the spirits of those there for treatment.
“With so much going on, everybody partying, all of that, and you say there is nothing more important than the kids,” said Cowboys Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin. “I think they pick that up, I think they sense that and get a feeling of, ‘hey there are people that care.’ And if we can give them just a little bit more hope in some of the things that they're going through to help them push through, that's a blessing from God.”
The Super Kids Bowl is a prelude to the Super Sunday Morning Hope Walk in Sundance Square. The walk costs $35 per person, with 45-percent of the proceeds going to Cook Children’s.
“The money will stay here at this hospital and this community, it’s that simple,” Green said.
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For the dozens of children that took part, it was simply a chance to have a break from treatment and feel like a kid.
Former Green Bay Packer William Henderson and Dallas County’s own Derrick Dockery joined Green and Irvin at the event. Several other NFL players were scheduled to take part but due to the weather were not able to get to town in time.
Green and his friends were also scheduled to visit several Fort Worth ISD schools on Tuesday and Wednesday, but were unable to because school was closed. Fort Worth ISD will receive 20-percent of the proceeds from the Hope Walk.
