NFLPA Honors Ryan Kerrigan as Community MVP

Kerrigan Recruits Teammates for “Celebrity Waiter Night” to Benefit Blitz for the Better Foundation
NFLPA honors Redskins linebacker as Community MVP

Editor’s Note: The NFLPA Community MVP recognizes players who are making a positive impact in their local communities. Each week, the NFLPA will celebrate one player who recently demonstrated his commitment to giving back to his community and will make a donation to the player’s foundation in support. This week’s #CommunityMVP is OLB Ryan Kerrigan of the Washington Redskins. On Monday, Kerrigan held a charity event that raised more than $100,000 for his Blitz for the Better Foundation.

Ryan Kerrigan has developed a sterling reputation both on and off the field since entering the league in 2011. A Pro-Bowler and a philanthropist, Kerrigan’s past week proves why he is so beloved in the Washington, D.C. community.

Coming off a four-sack performance against Jacksonville last Sunday, the Washington Redskins linebacker spent Monday evening hosting his second annual Celebrity Waiter Night at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Arlington, Va. Teammates Alfred Morris, Ryan Clark, Niles Paul and several others joined Kerrigan to help make the event a success. Equipped with aprons and name-tags, the Redskins celebrities served patrons of the restaurant in support of Kerrigan’s Blitz for the Better Foundation, which serves physically challenged, seriously ill and special needs children in the Washington area.

“We started this foundation two years ago with the hope of helping some special needs children and some physically challenged children and their family members in the greater Washington, D.C. area,” Kerrigan told Hogs Haven. “We want to help them by providing resources and, in particular, we wanted to establish Kerrigan's Korner in Children's National Hospital which will provide a locker for extended stay patients at the hospital. The lockers will be filled with iPads, Gameboys and different stimuli to make their stay a little better.”

The event was a true success and raised more than $100,000 after selling roughly 200 tickets, with all of the proceeds going towards his foundation. A grateful Kerrigan matched all donations up to $15,000.

Morris, who also participated in last year’s event, told Pro Player Insiders that “any opportunity I have to give back, especially for such a good cause, as Ryan [Kerrigan] has for ‘Blitz For The Better’ is definitely worth coming all the way out here to Arlington — fighting traffic in the middle of the day (he joked) — to come out here and support,” Morris said.

Earlier this year, Kerrigan’s Blitz for the Better Foundation partnered with the Torrey Smith Foundation to put on a charity basketball event. More than 25 active and former NFL players and local celebrities such as Wale participated, raising nearly $100,000 for both foundations.

The Blitz for the Better Foundation has tremendous support all over the greater Metro area, boasting sponsorships from Pepsi and many other local and national companies. With so much success in just two years of existence, Kerrigan and his Blitz for the Better Foundation are sure to be staples of Washington area philanthropy for years to come.

Keep an eye out for Blitz for the Better’s upcoming Christmas program, Ryan’s Reindeer Rush, as well as the second annual Battle of the Beltway Celebrity Basketball Game at the University of Maryland scheduled for March 28, 2015.

To learn more about Ryan Kerrigan’s Blitz for the Better foundation or Kerrigan’s Korner, please visit http://www.ryankerrigan.org/.

For more on Ryan, check out a profile on NFL Player Engagement: https://www.nflplayerengagement.com/life/articles/ryan-kerrigans-blitz-for-the-better-foundation-children-special-needs/

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