Welcome to TBO.com. Skip directly to: our Keyword Search, Section Navigation, Content.

TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online

TBO > News

Brooks, Dunn Touched Many Lives

By JOSE PATINO GIRONA

jpatino@tampatrib.com

Published: February 26, 2009

Who Is The Greatest Player In Bucs History?

TAMPA - The determination and tenacity Derrick Brooks and Warrick Dunn bring to the football field stays with them off of it.

Both men are visible in Tampa Bay area communities and many people have benefitted from their goodwill. Brooks was selected NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2000; Dunn received the same honor in 2004.

Lazandra Young credits Brooks for turning around her academic career and her life. She was a struggling eighth-grader who earned low grades and received school suspensions when she joined Brooks' youth program, "Brooks Bunch," through the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay.

Brooks regularly met with the students, held one-on-one sessions and read and wrote notes in their journals. If a student in the program needed someone to talk to, they could call Brooks, Young said.

Through the program, she spent two weeks in South Africa and visited universities in the United States.

"He was a turning point to me," said Young, of Tampa. "I probably wouldn't have gone to college."

Today, Young, 24, is a sixth-grade special education teacher at McLane Middle School in Brandon.

Along with the youth program, Brooks formed Derrick Brooks Charities and the Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School in Tampa, which is in its second year.

"He is like a father figure," Young said. "He is really a nice person. He motivated me a lot."

Dunn created the Homes for the Holidays, where he helps single parents buy houses and donates furniture, food and accessories for the home.

About three years ago, Carl Unkle and his mother, Nancy Bevilacqua, benefitted from Dunn's program. He helped pay the mortgage on their new home and furnished it.

Once the family's home life settled, Unkle said, he thrived academically and socially.

"I would not be the person I am today without him," said Unkle, 16.

On Wednesday afternoon Dunn addressed students at the Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School, a charter school near the University of South Florida campus. He never let on to students and guests that the Buccaneers had released him.

He briefly visited with audience members at a reception after his appearance. He did not, however, remain at the event to autograph his new book, "Running for My Life."

Dunn spoke about his mother, Betty Smothers, a Baton Rouge, La., police corporal who was slain in 1993 during off-duty work. He also spoke about the support he received from others as well as his Homes for the Holidays program, which has helped 81 families move in to new homes in Tampa, Baton Rouge, Atlanta and Tallahassee.

He encouraged the students to stay in school, be role models and help those in need.

"Consider what you can do to help someone in a situation worse than yours," Dunn said.

Correspondent Lenora Lake, and researchers Michael Messano and Melanie Coon, contributed to this report. Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 259-7659. Correspondent Lenora Lake, and researchers Michael Messano and Melanie Coon, contributed

Share this: