WARRENSVILLE HEIGHTS, Ohio — School is back in session and before hitting the practice fields ahead of their upcoming Week 1 game, Browns running back Jerome Ford and kicker Dustin Hopkins spent the morning celebrating education with students at Warrensville Heights Elementary School.
The two Browns players, who were supporting the Browns' Stay in the Game program which encourages good attendance and stresses the importance of education, opened up the morning answering questions from students in fourth and fifth grade and asking a few of their own.
The two then split up into teams and played "Minute to Win It" games with the students. From rolling cookies down their faces and trying to catch them in their mouths first to trying to wrap up players with an entire roll of streamer paper the fastest, the day was competitive and full of fun, laughs and positivity around being in school.
Having that kind of morning while in school is something Ford knows firsthand can create excitement about education and having good attendance.
"Came out, encouraged kids to stay in school. We obviously had some competition, had a little fun, but I think the biggest thing is making sure we encourage them to stay in school," Ford said. "Long ago, I was in these same seats, guys from the NFL coming out from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and just being able to hear it from somebody else other than my teachers and doing what I wanted to do made it a lot easier for me to be like 'Okay, this is something I should be doing, staying in school.'"
Ford and Hopkins signed autographs, gave high-fives and took moments with each kid that approached them. It wasn't just fun for the kids, either.
"This group today brought some energy," Hopkins said. "It's just fun. It takes you back to childhood a little bit. I even turned to one of the kids while we were sitting down to take a picture and I was like 'I feel like I'm in fifth grade again.' So it's just fun. Hopefully it's fun for them but also it's fun for us."
Both Ford and Hopkins hope their visit inspires kids in that school, and others across Northeast Ohio, to value their education and remain dedicated to going to school.
That's a message the school appreciates more than the players may know.
"We do nothing but the best for our scholars here. We try to roll out the red carpet to make sure that they understand how much we love them, we care about them and appreciate them. So to see two very great players on the Browns team joining us today, it means a lot to us as a staff and it means a lot to our kids," said assistant principal LaKeysha Davis.
"We hope that they take away the fact that it's very important to be in school," David continued. "I said it at the beginning: You miss a day, you miss a lot. The stakes are set really high against our children and we want to make sure that every day they're getting quality instruction, every day they know how important they are as citizens and members of the society and just making sure that they get everything that they can possibly get so we can prepare them for the next grade, for the next grade and then, in turn, for life."
