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A work of heart: much of Eagles cornerback Troy Vincent's hometown of Trenton, N.J., is in disrepair. But his plentiful, passionate and personal work to rebuild and revitalize the community is beginning to show results and makes him No. 1 on TSN's annual list of Good Guys in pro sports

Sporting News, The, July 7, 2003 by Paul Attner

Troy Vincent is walking through the Wilbur section of Trenton, N.J. He grew up in Wilbur when survival was a daily 10-round fight. It's worse now. Residents scratch out a living amid blocks of abandoned, boarded up, burned-out row houses and vacant warehouses. Kids who should be in school are standing on the corner, smoking, talking, doing nothing. Drug dealers stalk these streets; after dark, it becomes what Vincent calls "a war zone." It is ugly, sad.

While much of Trenton has been touched by the glimmer of revitalization, Wilbur remains a bystander. The people of Wilbur say all they ever get are unfulfilled promises.

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Vincent stops at a sign of the gross neglect, an uninhabited brick building with boards for windows and weeds for landscaping. "This" he says, "is a resource center, a computer center."

He gazes at the structure. "You take a building like this, demo it and build something that will help this community. Doesn't have to be big to be effective. It doesn't take a lot of morn to educate. A place where people can come and learn and upgrade their lives."

He points down the street, sweeping his band over the decay of Wilbur. "All this has to go," he says. "We have to make Wilbur a place where people are proud to live. But we have to give them the tools to make it. Just building new homes for them without educating them in life won't solve anything."

Around the corner from the warehouse is Faircrest Avenue. There are 31 tiny row homes in this cul-de-sac; most are well-kempt, with small front lawns and flowerpots. This is where Vincent lived as a youngster, in No. 9 and then No. 15. He now owns 9 and 15 and 1 I. He plans to buy them all, to shelter this enclave of respectability from the monster of poverty and neglect that has torn apart the neighborhood just a few steps in the distance.

Deeper into Wilbur is another deserted building, last used as a recycling center. It is across the street from an elementary school. Vincent wants to level the structure, clear off the land around it and construct the centerpiece of a community development plan that he hopes will become a national model for sane urban improvement.

It is a huge project, remaking Wilbur, and Vincent won't do it alone. Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer also has plans for the section. But the revitalization has to start somewhere; Vincent's initial efforts alone will cost as much as $15 million.

Amid the ruin of this recycling flop, he envisions putting small retail stores, maybe a bank, a day care, a soup kitchen and an anchor--an extensive community center that will give kids a home after school and adults an avenue to better their lives through vocational, financial and life skills training. He will add libraries; there are none in Wilbur. The changes would reverse years of embarrassing decline in Wilbur, just a few blocks from the thriving center of New Jersey's state capital.

This is the dream of Love Thy Neighbor, a nonprofit community development and opportunity corporation formed by Vincent and his wife, Tommi, specifically to tackle the multiple problems of the inner-city needy.

Vincent already is entrenched in Trenton. He has a financial services office located in one challenged section and, a few blocks away, a construction and development company that is restoring homes throughout the city. Soon, both businesses and Love Thy Neighbor will be relocated on a lot near Wilbur, where he and NovaCare will build a rehabilitation center. Downtown, the Vincents are about to put up a fitness and day spa complex; Tommi, who also was raised in Trenton, currently operates a salon and spa just beyond the city line.

"Troy Vincent is Trenton's treasure" says Palmer. "He doesn't have to be here, getting his hands dirty. He could be like a lot of athletes who have made it and forgotten where they come from. But Troy remembers. And he is giving back."

For all his extensive community involvement and particularly for his hands-on work within the most challenged parts of Trenton to help invigorate the city and its people, Vincent is the SPORTING NEWS' 2003 No. 1 Good Guy in pro sports. He stands out among the more than 300 nominees for this honor--a caring, dedicated athlete obsessed with doing good for those in need.

Vincent certainly could find less draining ways to spend his downtime. His 11 years in the NFL, including the last seven with the Eagles, already have made the four-time Pro Bowl cornerback wealthy. But a combination of a glowing spirituality and a deep-rooted empathy for the less fortunate drives him to be part of Trenton's reawakening. He is unique among his peers; he is committed more than any athlete in America to confronting the problems of the urban poor and to helping remedy them. Virtually every day in the offseason, usually as early as 7 a.m., he drives from his home outside Trenton into the worst parts of the city and goes to work. During the season, when he's not with the Eagles, this is the labor that consumes him.

A work of heart: much of Eagles cornerback Troy Vincent's hometown of Trenton, N.J., is in disrepair. But his plentiful, passionate and personal work to rebuild and revitalize the community is beginning to show results and makes him No. 1 on TSN's annual list of Good Guys in pro sports

Sporting News, The, July 7, 2003 by Paul Attner

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