Some of them haven't played football for years, while some of them still star on Sundays.
No matter. All of them have a way of lighting up a room, and Danny Noonan said that's the whole point.
For the fifth straight year, Noonan organized a group of football standouts to make the rounds at Children's Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha. Noonan and his five famous guests circled the sixth floor at Children's on Tuesday afternoon, signing autographs and chatting with kids, family members and visitors.
“It's fun, and it's cool,” said Waverle Monroe, 16, of Omaha. “I'm not really the biggest football fan, but it's just cool to have people take time out and come in here to visit people who are sick or not doing too well.”
Noonan's group this year featured former Nebraska Cornhuskers Eric Crouch, Jason Peter and Chris Kelsay. Chris Bober, the University of Nebraska at Omaha offensive lineman who went on to the National Football League, also took part. So, too, did Paul Posluszny, a linebacker out of Penn State who now is Kelsay's teammate with the NFL's Buffalo Bills.
The group handed out pictures and signed miniature footballs. One 11-month-old boy couldn't keep his grip on the souvenir, fumbling the pint-sized pigskin to the floor.
“Just like Crouch,” Peter joked, making everybody packed inside the boy's hospital room erupt in laughter.
“I have five kids of my own,” said Noonan, an All-America defensive tackle with the Huskers who retired from the National Football League in 1993. “So over the years, I've had experience coming to Children's, and they just do a phenomenal job. To have a child who is sick, that puts so much stress on a family. I think getting their mind off of that, even for just a few minutes, can be a really good thing.”
Crouch, coincidentally, looked like a member of the Children's staff as he showed up wearing scrubs. He said he didn't have time to go home and change clothes after working for a medical supply company Tuesday at Methodist Hospital.
“There are just a lot of kids who, for whatever unfortunate reason, end up in the hospital,” said Crouch, the 2001 Heisman Trophy winner. “We just want to do anything we can to brighten up the day for them.”
While the group visited one room, an infant boy applauded and — upon his mother's prompting — shouted out his take on the word “football.”
“This is something Danny does year after year, and it's the first opportunity I've had to come up here,” said Peter, the All-America defensive tackle at NU who retired from the NFL after the 2001 season.
“Lots of times, kids out there and fans out there, they look at us as heroes. But you walk through these hallways, you get to visit some of these kids, they are the true heroes. They're the inspiration. You spend five minutes with these kids, it's amazing.”
Contact the writer:
444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com
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