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XLII - A David Garrard Sighting

XLII - A David Garrard Sighting

By Ian Allen

Phoenix -

You know, Super Bowl week is one that everyone enjoys. It is full of the NFL Experience theme park, media day, parties, press conferences, meet and greet sessions, golf tournaments, cakes and ice cream and…you get the point.

But what about the multitude of other things that the NFL does for communities around the country and especially during Super Bowl week that no one really discusses. I will have to be honest, as a former player, most of your attention is focusing on the best party to go to. When I was in the Super Bowl, with the Eagles in 2005, there was really no going out because it was a business trip, and rightfully so. I caught up with the highly touted Jacksonville Jaguars Quarterback David Garrard, the hard hitting/special teams ace and impolite (and I will tell you why) Cleveland Browns Defensive Back Nick Sorenson, and also David Krichavsky (Dir. Of Communications NFL) and we spoke about one of the NFL programs called “One World”.

According to Mr. Krichavsky, One World is about “Celebrating diversity…One World is something that the NFL formed following 9/11”, in which they picked 10 classrooms from within the Valley (Phoenix), and paired each class with another class and created pen pals. The interaction between the kids is to breakdown cultural barriers and “help kids to learn about each other”, and their backgrounds. They have a fun filled curriculum, which allows the kids to find out unique things about each other and the way Mr. Krichavsky put it, “the point of One World curriculum is to teach kids about other cultures and understanding differences.” That is very important, because covering the NFL from an international perspective, I have learned that people in Europe do things differently, and people in Canada do things differently, and its those subtle things that make life interesting that should be embraced. You can appreciate where some one comes from when you simply ask questions or travel.

After all of the kids finished giving the high fives to David Garrard, I had a chance to find out his perspective of the event as well. The calm and cerebral QB who threw only 3 interceptions all season (I think that has to be one of the most elite performances of that category ever) gave his take on the concept and replied by saying its “to bring racial equality, to show that you can be different in appearance, but the same in heart, and same in mind. And its good to start with the youth because they are our future.” When asked about his traveling experience, he explained “I haven’t been overseas but I’ve been to Mexico, and we are actually going to Cabo for my birthday.”

Next, I spoke with the longhaired, well-traveled DB Nick Sorenson, and he had an interesting take on the event and traveling. But first, if I were still playing, I would taunt him to bring it on because he was being impolite for coming close to my height at 6’5. In other words, he is a huge Safety at 6’3. Watch for him next season as he is a great specimen for that position. Of course I am only kidding when I say he was impolite as he is a really great guy. When asked about the event Nick said “this is really cool, because I haven’t seen anything done like this, where they’re celebrating the diversity of all of these different kids.” I have to stand in agreement; it is a pretty unique program. His take on traveling is what kind of peaked my attention because I asked him about his favorite hot spot to visit and he said “Honestly wherever I go next, my favorite is always where my last trip was, and then my next.”

In retrospect, it was a great event and kudos to the National Football League for that.

Until next time.