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

"We grow up with the mindset of being leasers and renters. We grow up with no assets. We want them to be able to think like homeowners. That's when they protect what's around them. We have to realize that society owes us nothing. We don't want them in government programs; we want to help this community become self-sufficient so it doesn't have to look for outside help. This is community development, not housing development."

To say Vincent is driven is to say Julia Roberts is beautiful, He is serious to an extreme, a visionary, not a detail man, passionate about so much because there is so much to do. Mention his name to people who work with him in the community, and the response is consistent: caring, amazing, unique, charismatic. Smooth and gentle, gregarious and so impressively smart, he also can be a forceful businessman. He has no patience for false promises and windbags. And he is relentless in his quest to make a difference, so much so that his friends and family work fervently to limit the constant requests for his time out of fear he simply will wear out.

Vincent now is standing on Faircrest, near his old home. On the other side of the houses is a park--Jefferson Vincent Park--named after his grandfather. The Vincents restored the park and help maintain it. A garbage truck stops; two men get out and talk to him. Not about the Eagles but about setting up a kids college fund and about replacing a burned-out house. All day, no one asks him for his autograph. Vincent is not a celebrity to these folks. He is one of them, the hero who has come home, a guy who plays basketball twice a week in their neighborhoods, who still maintains friendships from his boyhood.

"I often encounter African Americans who achieve a certain level of success and then just keep getting further and further from their roots," says John Harmon, president of the Metropolitan Trenton African American Chamber of Commerce. "It is hard to get them to give back. But Troy gets it. He's had opportunities to do construction work outside of Trenton, but he has turned them down. He told me, 'I grew up here; I live in this area; I am genuinely concerned about it, and that is where I am going to do my business--in Trenton.' His commitment is unwavering."

Trenton is surprisingly compact. It once was a flourishing industrial city. One of its bridges proudly proclaims: Trenton Makes, The World Takes. But that was before American Standard and American Bridge and Lee clothing and others left, taking with them the core of the tax base. The population, now at 85,403, dwindled, crime rose, education deteriorated, demographics changed; the city is 52 percent African American, 22 percent Hispanic. In 1990, Palmer became Trenton's first African American mayor. Since then, the city has welcomed a new arena, a new minor league ballpark and its first major downtown convention hotel built in decades. Palmer sees Trenton as an entertainment and destination center. He, like others, recognizes its potential, sitting as it does on the Amtrak network, just 35 minutes from Philadelphia and an hour from New York City. But so much work still remains; the tax base has to be enlarged, abandoned homes and buildings replaced, the educational system improved, unemployment reduced.