By John Ingoldsby, Player Engagement Insider
When New England Patriots safety Devin McCourty hosts an event, he goes all in to ensure his guests have a memorable evening.
So it was this week before a full house in downtown Boston, when McCourty staged his third annual Tackle Sickle Cell Casino Night that started with red carpet photo ops and ended with a live auction featuring McCourty and teammates raising the stakes for Patriots gear while mixing in music and dancing.
Benefiting both Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Next Step (a foundation that supports young people with serious illnesses), the gala affair was held for a cause near and dear to the Rutgers alumnus’ heart.
“I have strong memories about sickle cell since my aunt and uncle both had it, so I feel I am doing something that makes them proud,” he stated. “We have great people helping out with this event to raise awareness for this great cause.”
Best of all, McCourty shares this battle with his twin brother Jason, a cornerback with the Tennessee Titans, and is all-in as well as he holds his own event each year in Nashville, and then the pair hold a joint annual event in their native New Jersey.
“My brother and I started with all of this five years ago, and have come to see that these events touch many people, including the kids with sickle cell, where we can watch the outcomes,” McCourty noted.
And he had plenty of help, starting with attendees getting in the mood by playing table games with printed Monopoly-like money presented to them upon arrival, all leading up to the high-energy auction where McCourty showed his mettle as the lead auctioneer for, among other items, Patriots signed jerseys, helmets big and small, and even a Coach Bill Belichick hoodie.
But he was certainly not solo on stage, as teammates tight end Martellus Bennett and safety Duron Harmon amped up the volume on the auction by adding music and dancing into the activities, and were ably assisted by linebacker Dont’a Hightower, who just last week hosted his second annual Monday Night Football Watch Party to benefit the American Diabetes Association.
The throng was also treated to compelling information from speakers representing both BCH and Next Step, who detailed both data and a first-person account of the campaign against Sickle Cell, which is a red blood cell disorder.
Most importantly, progress in being made, thanks in part to the McCourty twins, who for their work on and off the field, were both named 2014 “Walter Payton Man of the Year” by their respective teams.
John Ingoldsby is the President and Founder of IIR Sports, Inc. a sports media firm based in Boston. He has covered the NFL throughout his career that began as a newspaper reporter/editor, which includes articles in Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine (NFL Player Engagement), London-based Financial Times newspaper (NFL's international strategy), the Philadelphia Daily News (annual NFC Coaches Breakfast) and the Boston Globe (Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll).