Watch This NFL Player Treat Deserving Kids to a Holiday Shopping Spree

A group of Houston kids saw their Christmas wishes come true earlier this December when football player Andre Johnson surprised them with his annual toy giveaway.
With a shopping cart and some Houston Texans cheerleaders for assistance, the kids were given 80 seconds (Johnson’s jersey number) to tear through a Toys “R” Us for whatever toy they wanted.
The athlete started his touching annual tradition in 2007 to spread some holiday cheer to local children. This year, the 11 deserving recipients were from the Harris County Department of Family Protective Services and ranged in ages 8 to 16.
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To top it off, as he explains in the video below, the kids didn’t need to worry about accessing a goody, such as an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, locked in a glass case since each one was going to receive whichever game system they wanted, plus a couple of games.
The final bill this year set Johnson back a cool $16,266.26. According to ESPN, his credit card company called him to make sure the purchase was legit (although they should probably come to expect the annual spending spree since he spent $17,352 last year and $19,000 the year before that).
“I just enjoy doing it,” Johnson tells the sports network. “… I always felt like if I was ever to make it, I wanted to give back. You go through stuff as a kid growing up. You understand certain situations. I understand some of the things these kids go through.”
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The Gridiron Goes Green

The National Football League is no stranger to huge viewing audiences: This year’s Super Bowl was broadcasted in 198 countries and territories in over 25 different languages according to the International Business Times.  With these numbers, the NFL is using its clout to spike awareness in environmental issues.
How so? Several NFL clubs are jumping on the green trend by introducing solar panels, wind turbines, electric charging stations, and other low-carbon alternatives to their stadiums.
The San Francisco 49ers are joining 10 other clubs who have formal green-energy programs. Their new $1.2 billion stadium features a “living roof,” of plants topping the buildings surrounding one of the rooftop lounges. The 18,000-square-foot “garden” provides natural insulation as well as reducing the building’s energy use.
At home in Silicon Valley, 49ers President Paraag Marathe, told the Wall Street Journal, “where we are, it’s sort of our mandate. If it wasn’t environmentally responsible, we wouldn’t be as successful, ”
Additional eco-friendly aspects include 1,000 solar panels on top of the stadium and on the pedestrian bridges connecting the parking lot to the 68,500-seat stadium. Electric-vehicle charging stations have been installed as well as drought-tolerant Bandera Bermuda grass, which cuts water usage in half.
Coordination with NRG Energy Inc. and SunPower Corp. has helped to make the stadium net energy neutral, meaning it can generate all the energy it needs for the 10 home games that are expected to be played in the upcoming season.
Paul Allen, Natural Resources Defense Council and Microsoft co-founder as well as the owner of the NFL champion Seattle Seahawks, helped to launch the Green Sport Alliance in 2011 to encourage sports teams and venues to improve their environmental performance. Currently, the alliance boasts 246 members, 110 teams and 129 venues as well as seven leagues that are involved — including Major League Baseball, the National Baseball Association, National Hockey League, among others.
As more sports teams go green, it helps alter the public’s knowledge about environmental objectives. Plus it simultaneously aids the organizations by lowering energy costs.
Scott Jenkins, chairman and president of the alliance, and general manager of the New Atlanta Stadium told the Wall Street Journal “Everywhere you turn, it’s a win-win.” His new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons (which will open in 2017) will include a rainwater-collection system to use for irrigation and cooling.
These strides are great, but to some, it has taken the NFL too long to make them. With such huge viewing numbers (according to NBC’s press releases, Sunday Night Football, finished the 2013-14 season as the Number 1 show in primetime, bringing in about 21.7 million viewers), many critics feel the NFL is lagging. In fact, a 2013 study done by Danyel Reiche, an assistant professor of comparative politics at the American University of Beirut, discovered that only a small number of NFL teams have officially gone green.
In his study, Reiche claims, “the NFL itself, is doing nothing” to get clubs to alter their practices besides from spreading the information of what is already being done.
Although NFL officials say they don’t have the right to push team owners to make these changes, green practices have been implemented at the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl, according to Jack Groh, director of the NFL’s environmental program. At this year’s Super Bowl, the food vendors stopped using plastic-foam containers.
The Philadelphia Eagles, one of the first to go green back in 2003, placed energy-saving timers and sensors at Lincoln Financial Field to help with lighting and cooling equipment. The stadium also has 11,000 solar panels and 14 wind turbines, which, according to Don Smolenski, team president, have cut the team’s power consumption by half in the past decade.
And New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium — the home of the Giants and Jets — has solar panels, refrigeration sensors, and other green features which, since 2010, have cut the stadium’s energy use by as much as 20 percent, according to stadium spokesperson Nicole Fountain.
Also scoring points for their green actions? The Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings, St. Louis Rams, and Washington Redskins.

This Seattle Seahawks Player Made the Super Bowl Sound Sweeter to These Hearing-Impaired Twins

The story is enough to soften the hearts of even the most diehard Denver Broncos fans (this writer included). Derrick Coleman, the Seattle Seahawks’ hearing-impaired and tough-as-nails fullback, received a letter recently from 9-year-old Riley Kovalcik, who along with her sister Erin, shares his disability. “I know how you feel.” Riley wrote. “I also have hearing aids. Just try your best. I have faif [faith] in you Derrick.” The girls’ father tweeted the heartfelt letter to Coleman on January 21st. The next day, he tweeted his own letter back. “I want you to know that I always try my best in everything I do and have faith in you and your twin sister too,” Coleman wrote. “Even though we wear hearing aids, we can still accomplish our goals and dreams.” He ended the letter with a wish to meet the girls sometime to “play some sports or games.”
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Well, he did a lot more than that. On Thursday morning, the girls appeared via video stream from their home in New Jersey on Good Morning America, where they were visited by Derrick Coleman himself. The trio took a selfie (naturally), and then Coleman delivered them an even bigger surprise: tickets to the Super Bowl for the whole family. The girls’ reacted with huge smiles and an even bigger hug.
Coleman is the first legally deaf player in the NFL and recently became a bit of a spokesman for people with disabilities after starring in a Duracell commercial that has been viewed almost 14 million times on YouTube. The ad told the story of how Coleman was bullied growing up and that he was told to give up his dream of playing in the NFL. Not surprisingly, this resonated with the Kovalcik twins. “The first time I saw it, we were actually tearing a little bit,” Riley told GMA. “We were so happy that there was actually somebody that was good and could understand everything about hearing aids and that could help you.” Needless to say, this heartwarming Super Bowl story is not soon to be forgotten.
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The Super Bowl Is 60 Minutes Long, But Its Impact Lasts a Lot Longer

Football fans might be disappointed on Sunday when the season ends and the NFL goes on hiatus for seven months. But for communities that host pro football teams, the action doesn’t stop with the final whistle.

This year, programs coordinated by the NFL and the NY/NJ Super Bowl host committee pumped $11 million into afterschool programs. Their donations, managed through the Snowflake Youth Foundation, have financed new turf for fields, new floors for gyms, and other improvements that make after school youth programs possible. Organizers launched fifty different projects throughout the region, including many that are rebuilding and repairing facilities damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

“We know that Super Bowl XLVIII will thrill the thousands of fans watching in MetLife Stadium, but we want to ensure that the game impacts many more people in the surrounding communities,” Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner, said when announcing the program last year.

Just like the coin toss, philanthropy efforts are a Super Bowl tradition. Here are some of the people who win, thanks to the efforts of the NFL.

  • Heads Up Football: Launched last year by USA football with NFL support to address player health and safety issues in youth and high school football, this program helps educate and certify coaches, raises awareness of the dangers of concussions, and teaches proper tackling techniques that keeps players safe.
  • NFL PLAY 60: This program is aimed at tackling childhood obesity by encouraging kids to be active for 60 minutes each day. Launched in 2007, the NFL has so far given $200 million through the campaign.
  • Salute to Service: In 32 games this season, for each point scored, the NFL Foundation donated $100 each to the USO, Pat Tillman Foundation, and the Wounded Warrior Project. This year, the NFL donated $455,700 to these organizations. In addition, the NFL donates tickets to military families for the Pro Bowl game and regularly honors them at games.
  • Crucial Catch: This program seeks to promote regular breast cancer screenings for women. The pink apparel worn by players and coaches is auctioned off at the end of the month, with the proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society’s Community Health Advocates National Grants for Empowerment program, which provides outreach and breast cancer screenings to women in under-served communities.
  • Pro Bowl Community Grant:Every year, the Pro Bowl is held in Hawaii and the NFL gives grants to local non-profits. This year, the NFL Foundation is awarding a combined $100,000 to 40 non-profits.
  • Youth football Camp Grant: The NFL Foundation financially backs current and former NFL players and coaches who host non-contact youth football camps in the summer.
  • Grassroots Grant: Since 1998, the NFL has given $35 million to 273 projects in 70 cities that help non-profit, neighborhood-based organizations to improve the quality, safety, and accessibility of local football fields.
  • Foundation Grants: Many NFL players and coaches have their own foundations and philanthropies, and the NFL helps them out by providing financing.

If LeBron James Says Climate Change is Cool, It Will Be

Reps from the 4 major U.S. sports leagues—NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB—went to Washington, D.C. recently to talk about their leagues’ greenhouse gas emissions. This gives me hope that sustainability will get some much-needed cred and visibility. Because if you really want to catch peoples’ attention and change their actions, you need more than the right message. What you need is the right messenger too. Preferably a talented, famous person whom millions of fans look up to.