Sports Palooza: NFL's Jason McCourty; American Idol winner Taylor Hicks

TENNESSEE TITANS FOOTBALL STAR JASON McCOURTY, brother of the only twins currently in the NFL, shares his family’s holiday traditions with his mom! The McCourty family ties are strong. Devin and Jason McCourty were born 27 minutes apart in 1987. Their father died from a massive heart attack when they were three years old. As youngsters they promised each other they would get scholarships to college to ease their mother’s burden. They did! Playing football together at Rutgers University. Now, Jason has a successful career playing for the Tennessee Titans while his brother Devin plays for the New England Patriots. 

The twins and their mom say football is not only their way of life, it’s part of their family too. Jason and his mom Phyllis share some of their family and game day traditions with Ej in an effort to show how they helped to create their strong family ties. They hope their experiences can help show others how quality family time can build and maintain a close unit while fostering support and success among family members. 

Lisa also had a chance to talk to American Idol winner Taylor Hicks about his love of sports! Taylor has a new album coming out in 2016 and while she talked to him for other articles, he was excited to talk about his other love too! 

Megan Bartlett has spent most of her career working in, designing, and advocating for programs that use sports to promote youth health and academic achievement, and decrease youth violence. As Director of the Up2Us Sports Center, Megan is responsible for providing training, research and evaluation tools and services to sports-based youth development organizations. She created the training program and oversees the evaluation of Up2Us Sports’ Coach Across America program, the nation’s first sports-based national service program.