Washington Redskins Host 'Fun, Fly & Fit' Program For Over 800 Kids

LANDOVER, MD – The Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation (WRCF) and United Way of the National Capital Area (United Way NCA) hosted more than 800 elementary school students for “Recess with the Redskins Powered by United Way” last Friday at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex. In attendance was RB Alfred Morris, FB Darrel Young and Long-Snapper Nick Sundberg.

Along with the “Fun, Fly & Fit” coaches and United Way NCA volunteers, the Redskins players led students through 16 exercise stations, including Redskins Play 60 activities, bear crawl basketball, a hurdle relay and an obstacle course. To help signal a switch-of-stations (and also a dance break) the DJ played Mark Ranson’s “Uptown Funk.” It’s safe to say that the kids had themselves a ball!

Washington Redskins’ long-snapper Nick Sundberg said his favorite drill was what he calls the star-drill (video below). “The best one to watch was that star-drill where the kids have to run around the whole circle and then crawl through the legs,” he explained. “Unfortunately for the three of us [Sundberg, Morris and Young], we’re a little too big to be participating in that event. But that was one of the funnest events to watch.”

A video posted by Emmanual Benton (@manny_benton) on Apr 20, 2015 at 3:25pm PDT

Sundberg said when the WRCF asked if he’d like to participate in the event, it was an easy decision. “They knew I had some time before OTA’s and they asked me if I’d like to be apart of a wonderful event with a ton of kids,” he said. “It’s tough to say no to those type of events — I love hanging out with kids. Especially at events like this where you get to be active — doing a lot of running around with obstacle courses and stuff like that — you can really see how much fun they’re having. Plus we get to have fun with them. It’s not just going to a school and talking to them — it’s actually going and interacting with them. It was an easy decision for me.”

Pro-Bowl Running Back Alfred Morris piggybacked off Sundberg’s comments, but in his own humorous way. “‘Cause I hate kids! No, I’m just playing,” joked Morris when asked why he felt it was important to attend.

“I just love kids and this opportunity was big,” said Morris. “I always see the pictures from this one [event], but I’m never back in time to do it. So when they came asking if I want to do it, I was like ‘heck yeah, I want to do that.’ I just love coming out to mingle with kids. I just feel like — reaching kids/people when they’re younger — you have to plant a seed in their lives. Especially when we’re on this stage in the NFL — we have this influence on people to a certain extent — so why not use that influence and teach them that they can do whatever they want to do. Like — ‘hard work pays off’ — little nuggets like that. So when they get to high school or college — they remember that. Like, ‘I remember Alfred Morris told me I can be anything I want to be.’ It just sticks with them. So why wouldn’t I want to be here and hang out with the kids — just letting them know I’m a normal person just like you — they can chase their dreams just like I did.”

Fullback Darrel Young mentioned that having fun at events like this outside of football could not only help the kids, but the players on-the-field. “You know, it’s an opportunity for us players, coaches and fans going into this season,” he said. “We’re just out here trying to get a different mindset than we’ve had the past two years in terms of wins and losses — have fun before anything and everything else should come easy.”

In this new technology-age, things like games and apps are consuming the minds of children and keeping them from being active. Both Darrel Young and Alfred Morris went in depth on this topic and it’s one of the major reasons they involve themselves in these initiatives.

“It’s important because at the end of the day, people are dying before 50 because of health reasons, but you didn’t have that before,” said Young. “So, it’s important to just go out there and exercise because there’s so much obesity going on. Kids with diabetes at 6 or 7 — you didn’t hear about that stuff. There’s a lot more ACL, MCL and joint problems — whereas, I didn’t even think of an ACL/MCL problem till I got to college — hadn’t even heard of it. So I just think it’s important just for your health reasons.”

Alfred Morris was candid in saying, “I feel like they’re creating more and more ways for kids to be lazy.”

He continued, “you know, they always have a new game console that’s coming out or a new app that’s coming out. Not even just kids, but adults — their faces are always stuck in a phone. When I was a kid, we were always outside. You couldn’t even pay us to stay in the house. But now-a-days when I go outside it’s like, where are all the kids? They’re sitting on their butts somewhere. I feel like that’s adding to the epidemic of obesity because of kids not being active. Then you also have schools who are taking away recess. I feel like that’s important — that’s a good outlet for kids. They wonder why all these kids are getting into trouble — it’s because they have all this energy and they don’t have a chance to expel it. So that’s why they end up acting up or acting out and doing some of the things they do. So it’s important for them to come out and do this. I love, not only Play-60 or anything just to get active, but also if you look at Play-60 it teaches the kids about eating right. I feel like, when I was younger, we didn’t know about eating right. But just having a balance between exercise and a good diet makes a huge difference. I definitely wish I would have known this stuff when I was a kid. So I want to let these kids know this because I didn’t know it coming up.”

In all, not only was it an extremely fun event for the kids, but it was also a very educational experience. At the conclusion of the event, each participating student received a free health and wellness bag, including items such as water bottles, Redskins prizes and other items to help promote a healthy lifestyle.

For more information on United Way NCA, the Fun, Fly & Fit program or the United Way NCA P.E.P. Grant, visit www.unitedwaynca.org, www.funflyfit.org or follow the organization on Twitter @UWNCA.

For more information on the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation’s programs and events or to donate, visit www.redskins.com/community or follow the Foundation on Twitter at @RedskinsCR.