Neighbors

Pro football players come to Valley Stream

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About 200 people showed up for each of the two Pro Football Legends events the Village of Valley Stream hosted at Village Hall on Saturday.

“People enjoyed hearing from people at the highest level of their profession,” said village clerk Bob Barra, who organized the visit from six former NFL players for the second year in a row. “A lot of them used their passion in other areas of life and had success in careers after the NFL. They talked about how they used the things they learned playing professional football. Their focus is astonishing.”

Former Green Bay Packers players Jerry Kramer and Marv Fleming, who went on to own several businesses and get into real estate, respectively, spoke and signed autographs. Barra, a die-hard Packers fan, changed the bill this year to include players from New York’s franchises. Leonard Marshall and Sean Landeta of the Giants and former Jets Ken Schroy and Greg Buttle joined the dais to speak about their lives post-football and answer questions from the audience.

A portion of proceeds from the $20 ticket sales will go to Building Homes for Heroes, an organization that works to provide homes for veterans. Barra said the proceeds are still being counted, but between $1,500 and $2,000 was raised this year.

Barra had the idea for the event after corresponding with author Royce Boyles, whose several books on Vince Lombardi Barra had read. He wrote to Boyles to tell him to keep the books coming, and Boyles responded. Barra was able to take advantage of Boyles’s contacts in the league and the two worked to make it a reality.

“To see these guys as human beings who are giving back to the community is encouraging to me,” Boyles said. “The questions were good, the attentiveness was good. This wasn’t about rushing and tackles, it was more looking at the humanistic aspect of how the game impacted their lives.”