Dunn dedicated to changing strangers' lives

ATVZ400 · May 23, 2008

The afternoon of Jan. 30, 2008, was not a high point for me. At the downtown convention center in Phoenix, sitting a few feet away from a man who's done more to change lives than any other professional athlete I know -- who was being honored as such -- I was disinterested. Bored, even.

Warrick Dunn was accepting the Home Depot NFL Neighborhood MVP, awarded for his Homes for the Holidays foundation. He was talking about his efforts "on and off the field," and I felt like I had heard it all before. So many pro athletes have foundations. So many don't tend to them. So often I've been in a player's house and realized that his charity amounts to a dated Web site, stacks of paper on the floor and piles of unopened mail -- all to be handled by a entourage member who's eternally preoccupied by Wii.
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GREAT READ!!
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=wickersham_seth&id=3406955

alen1 · May 23, 2008

Dunn selected Hazley by personally reviewing her application, reading her bio, studying her circumstances, and praying. It's what his mother, Betty Smothers -- the inspiration for his charity -- would have wanted. A police officer in Baton Rogue, La., Smothers was killed in the line of duty before she achieved her goal of home ownership. "I'm not completely buying the house for them, but I am taking away any excuses they have," Dunn says. "We provide the down payment, we fill up the house. All they have to do is bring their clothes."

I often ask football players what it feels like to catch a pass, throw a block, score a touchdown, take a lick. I've never asked what it's like to change a stranger's life for the better. "You can't describe it," Dunn says. "It's one of the greatest feelings. I cherish them for my lifetime. Each person and each moment is unique. To be with them when they achieve home ownership, it's amazing."
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I absolutely love this guy, more as person than a player to be honest with you. I wish we had more people like him.

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Dunn dedicated to changing strangers' lives

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