Running back Ahman Green and defensive end Anthony Weaver left behind their helmets and pads and armed themselves with books Wednesday as the Texans and Comcast helped promote National Literacy Month at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Houston.
The players delivered over 1,800 books that had been personally donated by Houston-area Comcast employees as part of a region-wide company book drive.
"By March being National Literacy Month, we thought it would be a good idea to do a book drive to support the Boys and Girls Club," said Tony Speller, senior vice president of Comcast's Houston region.
"We were pretty amazed at the outcome we got out of this initiative. Our employees were really excited about it. We collected over 1,800 books and we think this will go a long way for the Boys and Girls Club."
The books donated by Comcast will fill the library of the Boys and Girls Club at Finnigan Park. But before the books hit the shelves, Green and Weaver read to the youngsters.
"I read like three or four books over there - we read a Winnie-the-Pooh book," said Weaver, who worked up a sweat while acting out the book's characters.
Green, a veteran storyteller, was equally as animated during his reading of "The Lion King."
"I've got kids at home and every now and then a storybook reading comes around, so I've got to be innovative and make it exciting so they pay attention," Green said.
{QUOTE}The two players also spoke about the importance of reading and finding positive influences in their lives.
"To know how to read goes along with everything you need to do in life," Green said. "If you want to be a teacher, doctor, lawyer, football players, baseball player – whatever, whatever job it is, you've got to know how to read because the more you read, the more you know."
Weaver talked about the pure enjoyment he gets from opening a book and letting his imagination go wild.
"Reading is very important, not only for pure education purposes," Weaver said. "You can escape to places you never dreamed of going. Say you want to go to Paris, but you can't afford to go to Paris. You can read about it and take your imagination there through a book."
The youngsters were riveted by the players' narrations, saying the Texans made reading very fun.
"Hopefully, I left some kind of imprint on them where they think, 'Hey, if he made it to where he is, I can too,'" Weaver said.
