Falcon players to join Youth Foundation

By Jerry Gunn

FLOWERY BRANCH - The Atlanta Falcons Friday announced that more than 30 players, including linebacker Keith Brooking, tight end Alge Crumpler and cornerbacks Allen Rossum and DeAngelo Hall will join the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation as it launches its first Falcons Force Fitness Zones to get children in better physical condition.

The Fitness Zones are areas in which the foundation will fund organized youth fitness programs offered by non-profit partners.

Jean Romain, an elementary school Phys Ed teacher in Atlanta, attended the Falcons press conference at their Flowery

Branch training facility with some of her students and said physical education needs to return to the schools.

"I was only able to see my kids last year for 30 minutes," Romain said.

"Because of the initiative the Falcons Foundation has provided to us, I'm able to see my kids twice a week for 30 minutes."

Cornerback DeAngelo Hall said he wants to get kids to exercise and not just play video games.

"At the rate we're going right now, these kids aren't going to outlive their parents,"DeAngelo said.

Family Foundation president Penny McPhee said about one in three Georgia middle school students and one in four high school students are overweight.

Atlanta elementary student Gabrielle Ragsdale said Fitness Zones are a good idea.

"I think it would be a generous offer to help us with physical education," she said.

Over the next three years the foundation will provide grants in Falcons Force Fitness zones totaling nearly $2-million to three metro Atlanta youth service organizations.