Philanthropic Football Players

Philanthropy is not something that you automatically associate with NFL players...or athletes in general. Most people think of Pacman Jones and Chris Henry when they think of the typical NFL player. It's just not the case. Take yesterday for example - AJ Nicholson got cut by the Bengals for his repeated arrests and that gets all the headlines, but at the same time a much better story got buried by the media.

As is custom with superstitious athletes that switch teams, new Texan Ahman Green wanted to "buy" his #30 jersey number from long-time Texan Jason Simmons. Instead of asking for money or a free vacation like most athletes, Simmons asked that Green make a down payment on a home for an under-privileged family.

"He said what he wanted to do and I said: 'Yeah I'm all on board. That's easy,"' Green said. "Tell me where to write the check to. So instead of putting the money into his pocket, he's going to put in into somebody else's home, house and help them get their life started."

Oh yea, and Warrick Dunn's Foundation has its "Homes for the Holidays" program:

"Homes for the Holidays" assists single mothers in owning their first home by providing the down payment on a house and then filling the house with everything a first-time homeowner would need including: furniture, food, linens, lawn mower, gardening supplies, washer, dryer, dishes, pots and pans, etc. This program is the primary focus of the Warrick Dunn Foundation and to date has assisted 60 single mothers and more then 140 children in Atlanta, GA, Baton Rouge, LA and Tampa, FL.

It's not that the good stories don't exist, it's that the media doesn't cover them.