'We're here to celebrate you': NFL Hall of Famers talk with Petersburg students

PETERSBURG – Four NFL Hall of Famers came to Petersburg Monday to speak with students but not about the game of football.

Instead, Darrell Green, Bruce Smith, Anthony Munoz and Aeneas Williams talked about the game of life and how the young people in their audience should play that game to the best of their abilities. They might have been sporting the gold jackets with Hall of Fame logos, but each speaker left the rest of their laurels at the door and tried to get real with the kids by sharing their lives before the national sports spotlight shone on them.

“We’re here to celebrate you,” Green told the group. “I don’t need anyone to celebrate me.”

Their appearance was part of a joint effort from the NFL Hall of Fame and healthcare group Virginia Total Care called “Strong Youth, Strong Communities.” Through the partnership, students in low- and moderate-income localities are visited by athletes who share their own stories of overcoming similar adversities to achieve success.

For example, Green, now 63, spoke about how he grew up in the projects of Houston, lost his brother to drug addiction, dropped out of college only to drop back in, and how believing he could succeed led to a 20-year career with the then-Washington Redskins, now Washington Commanders. He said he faced the temptations of drugs, crime and alcohol from friends, but he made the decision that “I’m not gonna do it.”

“That don’t mean the guy who did it is the worst person in the world, but I just said I’m not gonna do it,” Green said. “I’m not gonna smoke that cigarette. I’m not gonna drop out of high school. I’m not gonna smoke that joint. I’m not gonna steal this car. I’m just not gonna do it.”

Some people will, though, and some of them are sitting in his audience.

“Somebody in here will do it. But somebody in here won’t,” Green, a seven-time Pro Bowler and holder of the NFL’s “Fastest Man Alive” record, said. “Somebody’s gonna be standing up here as the principal one day, and somebody won’t. Somebody might be going out of here in handcuffs, and somebody will walk out of here as the chief of police.”

Smith, a Virginia Tech graduate, played 19 years with the Redskins and Buffalo Bills. He holds the NFL record for career quarterback sacks with 200. Still, “I got in trouble on a regular basis” growing up in Norfolk, he told the students.

More often than not, he got in trouble because of peer pressure.

“When I got into trouble, it was because there was someone with me encouraging me,” Smith, 60, said. “Thank God the people who believed in me, they would always pull me back.”

With the help of their parents, teachers and coaches, “you gotta understand your importance in life,” Smith told the kids.

Munoz, 65, played 13 seasons as offensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals and is considered by many to be the greatest offensive lineman to ever play the game.

He also grew up without a father, who died of a heroin overdose before he was born. One of his brothers overdosed in Munoz’s arms.

Because of that background, Munoz stressed the importance of not going through life isolated from others. Kids need a support network just like adults.

“You have the smarts to be anything you can be. Don’t let people tell you otherwise,” he said.

Williams, 55, played cornerback and safety for 15 years with the Arizona Cardinals and St. Louis (now Los Angeles) Rams. Now an ordained minister, Williams touched on his preaching background in his presentation by venturing into the crowd and picking out students to help him prove his points.

“I love you enough to stand here and try to get your attention,” Williams shouted. “I’m told that people have just written you off if you grew up in a particular community.”

“Attention” was a little hard to come by Monday, particularly with the students in the PHS gym stands. A consistent din of noise prompted many rebukes from the speakers to be quiet. Williams even stopped his presentation in the stands to tell the kids he was not going to continue unless they quieted down.

Some students either looked bored or looked away from the speakers. Several were on their phones or talking with others. A few stretched out in the bleachers and appeared to be napping. Some even got up and walked out.

The din could be heard when Williams attempted to close his presentation by praying for the students … something he admitted he had not done in previous appearances.

Teachers positioned on the gym floor were frequently seen motioning to students to sit down, quiet down or get back in their seats.

Afterwards, Smith chalked up the challenge of keeping the kids’ attention to all the distractions they face daily that he previously encouraged them to avoid as much as possible.

Juniors and seniors who assembled in the PHS auditorium appeared to be better behaved.

Speakers took questions and comments from their audience while staff members of the high school-based Crimson Clinic took notes of the comments on huge paper pads. Green said the notes they get at these sessions are used to tailor and tweak future presentations.

One student who identified herself as “Melanie” said on the microphone, “You only live once, so don’t listen to what other say, just live it up.” When Green asked her if she was referring to him and the other speakers, she paused, then repeated, “Just don’t listen to what others try to tell you what to do.”

In addition to the Hall of Famers, students also heard from Iman McFarland, a former women’s basketball star at the University of North Carolina and now chief operations officer of her family-owned event-management company 21^st Century Expo Group.

The speakers were divided into groups. When Green and Smith were speaking in the gym, Munoz, Williams and McFarland addressed juniors and seniors in the auditorium, and vice versa.

After speaking at PHS, the group also met with students at the I.B. Pittman Vocational Education Center and Vernon Johns Middle School. The organizers of the event estimated that by the end of Monday, the speakers would have been in front of 1,800 middle- and high-school students in Petersburg.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Pro football greats talk the game of life with Petersburg students