- The Browns visited a primary school in England as part of their initiative to combat chronic absenteeism.
- A teacher at the school, a lifelong Browns fan, was surprised with a new jersey and tickets to the team’s London game.
- The ‘Stay in the Game’ program aims to keep students engaged in school through enriching activities.
Kevin Smith thought he would be a nervous wreck. He just wanted everything to go right for his students, especially since his favorite NFL team was visiting his school about two hours outside of London.
It turns out he was a part of the surprise visit as well.
Members of the Cleveland Browns visited Trapston Primary School in Northamptonshire, U.K. on Thursday, Oct. 2 to have an assembly and play an outdoor flag football game with students before their Week 5 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 5 in London
The visit is part of the Browns’ Stay in the Game! effort, which aims to combat chronic absenteeism, encouraging students to participate in enriching activities to influence attendance that can lead to graduation.
“When the email came through, saying ‘Would you like the Browns to visit your school on October 2nd? ‘I’m just like, Are you serious? Do I want my favorite football team to come to my school on my birthday? Yes. Wow. Fantastic,” said Smith, who turned 57 this week. “It was a great, great thing to happen.”
The Browns connected with Smith, a diehard Cleveland sports fan who was born in Findlay, Ohio, while his father was working with Marathon Oil. His family moved back to London a few weeks after he was born. When NFL games began broadcasting in Europe in the 80s, Smith knew there was only one team for him to support.
“On my birth certificate, it’s got district of Cleveland,” Smith said. “I follow basically all of the Cleveland team, so I’m big brands fan, big Guardian fan. So that’s how that came about.”
Smith teaches all subjects at his school, and runs the school’s physical education program, setting up soccer matches and recently starting a flag football team.
“We try and get all the children involved,” Smith said. “We split it along two lines: We have the line where we’re thinking we want to be successful and win, but we also have the line where we think we want to get as many children, representing the school and taking part in the tournaments because it gets them to buy into the school and they feel a pride in their school.”
Everyone in the school knows Smith is a big Browns fan, but he did not know he was also going to be surprised with a new jersey, a VIP invite to a team practice Friday and tickets for the London game. School principal Pauline Turner also received jerseys and tickets to the game, while one student, who will attend with her parents, will be get to pick up the kickoff tee during the game.
Former Browns tight end Gary Barnidge, who is co-founder of American Football Without Borders, attended the school assembly held for about 400 students, while 40 kids got to participate in a flag football game where they were cheered on by team mascot Chomps.
“I’ve taught for 25 years now, and every now and again, you have a win. This is a massive win. And it just makes me really proud to support that team that takes the effort to actually come over to our school,” Smith said. “They’re not just here to play a football game. They’re dealing with a global problem that needs to be dealt with, and they’re doing it in my community.”
After conversations with school superintendents in Ohio, Browns owner Dee Haslam discovered kids are 3.9 times more likely to read on grade level if they attend regularly, and three times more likely to graduate. Their findings inspired them to build a playbook to teach teachers and administrators what they can do to help keep the kids in school.
“Education is something that I care deeply about,” Haslam told USA TODAY Sports. “We recognize that any engagement from music, to theater, to science club or whatever – however you can keep kids engaged so they want to be in school. They can’t do those clubs or extracurricular things if they’re not there. So, every single day counts.”
Stay in the Game! is in at least 215 districts in Ohio, available to support 580,000 students across the state. The program says it has decreased chronic absenteeism by 10.3% since it began in 2019.
The Browns have partnered with MLS teams Columbus Crew (which the Haslams own) and FC Cincinnati to help schools around Ohio. Haslam hopes other sports teams in the U.S. will join their initiative in their respective areas.
Haslam also plans to meet Smith before the Browns take on the Vikings, to thank him for being a huge Cleveland sports fan and for doing his part to keep his students in school.
“We’re having an impact far beyond the districts we’re involved. And we believe that Kevin will have that same impact. There’s no telling how far this can go internationally, but this is encouraging, exciting, and so incredibly helpful for families,” Dee Haslam said.