Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.60 | 2025 NFL Alumni Golf Tournament!

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Good News York: NFL Alumni Golf Tournament & David's Refuge Spotlight In this special edition of Good News York, host Mike Brindisi covers the NFL Alumni Golf Tournament at Timber Banks Golf Club in Baldwinsville, NY. The event, organized by the NFL Alumni Association's Upstate New York chapter led by Hall of Famer Gene Mills, chooses a different charity each year and this time it's David's Refuge. Mike interviews Kate Houk and Diana Nightingale from David's Refuge, highlighting their mission to support caregivers for children with special needs or life-threatening conditions. He also talks with Marlon Greenwood, a former NFL player, who shares his journey from wrestling and soccer to football and his commitment to community involvement through his foundation. The episode is filled with inspiring stories and the vibrant atmosphere of the tournament. 00:00 Introduction and Event Overview 01:56 Interview with Kate Houk from David's Refuge 04:51 Interview with Marlon Greenwood 12:16 Interview with Diana Nightingale from David's Refuge

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Mike Morgasie with you here on a special edition of Good News, York. We're lives, or we're not live, but we're here at the Timber Banks Golf Club or Country Club. Just probably figure out which one it is. In Baldwin'sville, New York, the NFL alumni golf tournament. This is a golf tournament that they do every year put on by the NFL Alumni Association, Gene Mills, Hall of Fame Wrestler. mean Gene. You don't call him that. He'll killy. He is the chapter head for the upstate New York chapter of the NFL Alumni Association. They pick a different charity each year.

They do a big golf tournament, former players, former coaches, prominent people in the area, and then idiots like me. And this year they chose David's Refuge as their charity of choice. David's Refuge, friends of ours on the show, we've had Diana Nightingale, Kate Hauke, And from David's Refuge on the show, they were talking about this tournament, and the old light ball went off. And I thought, why don't we head down to the tournament when that happens and get some footage? So I'm going to be doing some interviews, getting some footage, hopefully not getting kicked out.

And I want to challenge Daryl Luce Johnson to a push-up contest. No, I don't. But either way, we're going to have some fun. Let's see what happens here. at the Timber Banks Golf Club for the NFL alumni golf. Turn. Hi. Hello.

Oh, you're going to do with this like this? We have to do it like this. This is my buddy Kate. Hi. From, I said that red Kate Howe, right? You did. Okay. Yes.

Maybe. Maybe. This is our buddy Kate Halk from David's Refuge. We just talked about David's Refuge. We had you guys on Good News York. We absolutely love what you do for families, caregivers, and for people with illness. I was talking to Diana about these lemons. I love this.

You have a basket of lemons here, and she has no idea what the hell it's for. So I am glad that you're going to tell us. Let me see that. Pass the lemon tor. Yeah. So I thought it was when life hands you lemons, right? That's a great. Yes. Yeah.

But we tend to be accused at David's refuge of being toxicly positive. So for us, hey, it's a compliment. Yeah, I was just saying. We're good news York. We only do good news. That's right. So we will do it, especially. in the current world we're living in, I will be toxicly positive to the day I die.

If that's toxic, then I want to be the most toxic person ever. So during COVID, we started to think about things and everything we had to do was with a twist. We're like, oh, you know what? Let's do our annual big fundraiser, but with a twist. And let's think about something bright and fresh and restorative. And we all thought of lemons. That's real. And so this went together and we started to leave lemons. in people's mailboxes.

And we started to put lemons on a lot of our different marketing materials. And it really just started to become something that we thought did, connect David's Refuge, the mission of light and love and be the light, came out in the lemons. So here we are today, still giving lemons away as stress balls. See, that's why I knew I should talk about these lemons. I knew there was going to be a story behind. Did you hear that, Diana?

There's an actual story behind the lemons. Further training needed. Further training. But no, I think that's a wonderful message. And it really represents David's refuge because you guys are so unique in what you do and how you approach things. So here we are at the golf tournament. How beautiful is this? I have a problem because I don't want to be the cliche guy that's walk around going, beautiful day for it.

Perfect day. But it is. There's not a cloud in the sky. It's not very humid. Yes. But let's remember. if it was raining, we would be saying, wow, the grass is going to be so green tomorrow. That's right. And we would say, hey, plants somewhere are coming alive again.

Yeah. And we would just. You get to use that golf umbrella. You never got to use before. Look at this. We're just going to pour toxicity all over this golf course. Toxicity of happiness. And happiness. I love it. I love you. All right. Here we are. Kate Halk, David's Refuge at the NFL alumni golf tournament. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having us. For me. All right, Mike Brinissi,

good news, York, here with Marlon Greenwood, former NFL player. Marlon, it is an honor to meet you and to get to interview you. You're here for a great cause. Tell us, who did you play for in what position?

So I played for the Miami Dolphins and the Houston Texans. But the college I went to Syracuse University. You know, went there from 1996. Last season, with 2000, even, I got registered in my first year, started 48 consecutive games at Syracuse. And I was fortunate to get drafted by the Miami Dauk and started four years with them. And then signed with Houston, Texans, and started four years with them.

But it's so glad to be back here in Syracuse to be able to support such a good cause. And it's such a wonderful feeling being home. I call it home because, you know, New York and also this is what was responsible for me getting a champ to go into the NFL. It's a great feeling, you know. Growing up in life, you all get busy, but it's all good to come home. So well said. I mean, it's so great. People don't get to see outside of, you know, the NFL,

how much you guys do for the communities and coming back to where, you know, where you either went to school or grew up is so important. How did you get involved with this NFL alumni tournament? All right, so the vice president, James Munger, played with him at Syracuse. He ought to play by Indianapolis Col. And Gene Mills, he was a wrestling coach.

Mean Gene. I mean, yeah. And I wrestled in high school. Gene actually tried to recruit me when I was at Syracuse. Is that right? Yeah. Well, good thing you didn't. Well, I really enjoy wrestling and wrestling was a five-time state champion wrestler.

I won the New York State Championship my senior year, but in Greco Room and Freestyle wrestling, I won the state, Empire State Games. Actually, the first Empire State games I won in my thoughts. sophomore year at even the Carriodon. No way. Before I even started playing football. I started playing football my junior year in high school. And after my first year, Syracuse offered me a scholarship.

And because I played soccer before, then coming from, to make it a long story. You know, I think you made the right decision because, you know, in football, there's a wrestling element to it, right? In wrestling, there's really not a football element to it. I always said that if I, God forbid, I was to get in a fight, you never want to get in a fight with a wrestler because you either got to knock them out. Because once they get you down, that's it. Am I right?

You're absolutely right. You know, and that's why most of the MMA fighters, good wrestling with a good wrestling background that make great, great fighters there. And, you know, the wrestling definitely prepared me for football with the tackling and everything. Sure. But one of the things coming up here to be able to give back to a cause like this

is very important to me. I have my own foundation, MJ52, Marlon Greenner Foundation. We do free football camps for the kids. We're service over 12,000 kids for free to date. We started doing it back in 2015. And I was that youth coming up, looking for a way out. I have seven brothers and four sisters.

We've had to help my family. And football gave me that avenue. My coach was selling in high school, gave me an opportunity to wrestle. He was the one that dragged me into wrestling. He was the head football court took him one month to convince me to play. And I was telling someone yesterday that I said, Let me play football to do a coach selling a favor, but actually he was doing me a favorite because I didn't know the opportunities of football.

Absolutely. But he was such a good guy, and he was also the assistant wrestling coach, and I had a relationship with him knowing what type of person he was. So when you were like, come on and join the football team, I was like, you know what, maybe I should, but football and soccer within the same season. And it was a difficult decision to make. But he said football starts two weeks before soccer. Come on, try it out.

And if you like it, stay. If you don't like you, go back to soccer. Perfect. And that's what happened. And after my first year playing, I got offrey, post-Col, Syracuse University, went to playing in the NFL, all because of a coach selling, you know.

And also, I have to give a shout out to Coach Ed Ogeron, who are recruiting me from out of high school, and also Coach Paul Pascolone, Chris Ripon, Mike Gerber, all the great coaches that we had at Syracuse who really help help us. George Dillon, you know. Yep. So many.

So many people that impacted. And if I forget to mention someone, you know, that all of impacted our lives. That's amazing. And I know you've got to get back to golf, but real quick. Syracuse Orange, the program, always been a respected program, but there's been quite a lull. And then we noticed, you know, Malarki, or not Malark, excuse me.

Well, Babers came along and a bunch of other coaches. And it seems like the program is really starting to, you know, they're starting to recruit better, get bigger and better players. It seems like, I don't know, the Syracuse Orange football is back. Are you excited about that? Do you feel the same? You know, I'm very excited about it. I was very sad to see Coach Paul Pascoloni go,

because I think that really impacted the program because of the years and the relationship that he's built because he's a man that's standby of word. And we won three biggest championships. went to some good bowl games. You know, we moved down to the Mnab, Keith, Dwight Franey, you know, all these guys that we had. Lindo Marry.

Linda Marry. Yeah, yeah. Play with him down in Miami. In Miami, yeah. Rob Conrad. Yeah, fullback. Fullback. You know, just to name a few guys that we had on the team.

But Coach B really did a great job of recruiting and having a great coach with around him and being a person that's so tough and full of integrity. And one thing I always remember what coach said, one year, the year when we won, won the biggest title, we were 0 and 3. I remember he came into the team meeting room, and he said, if you don't remember one thing, remember this.

Tough times don't last, but tough people do, right? And we won eight straight games. Yeah. We went to the Orange Bowl that year. That was the year we went to the Orange Bowl. I remember. And it was just a tremendous year. So I just always want to give a lot of respect to the people that have helped to mold my life.

You're such a great guy. You've named off, I think, every player that you've ever played with, which is amazing of you. And before I let you go, is there anything you want to plug? Your foundation, anything like that? Oh, so if, you know, we have our free football camp coming up. I'm out of Vegas. I'm the president of the Las Vegas chapter. Also, founder of the Marling Greenough Foundation. We do a free football camp every year.

All the information is on my website, MG52.org. The name is Marlon Greener. So, M.G. My number was 52. 52 in high school, 52 at Syracuse, 52 at Miami. Only time of change, 56 was when I would use in Texans. Okay. And my father, I found out later was born in 1952. You should know when you're saying it's a corner, of course.

Well, you've got to play 52 when you wherever you're betting or anything like that. That's your magic number. I thought it's MG52.org. Awesome, man. Marlon Greenwood, thank you so much for your time. And good luck today. Appreciate you very much. Ready?

All right, Mike Brindisi, good news York, here with our friend, Diana Nightingale from David's Refuge. The reason we're here, because, Diana, we had you on Good News, York. We talked about David's Refuge and CNY Mental Health and Melissa Carman. And you mentioned that you were chosen. and your, David's Refuge is the charity of choice for the NFL alumni golf tournament. And here we are on a perfect day.

So beautiful. Remind us, well, first of all, good morning, good afternoon. Remind us about David's Refuge, what it is that you guys do. David's Refuge provides respite, resources, and support to caregivers of children with special needs or life-threatening medical conditions so that they can be renewed, refreshed, and restored in their role as caregivers. It's absolutely. Beautiful. And, you know, we talked about that on the show, how, you know, when when people come down with illnesses that, you know, obviously we think of them and what they're going through. But a lot of times we don't think about the caregivers. And so what you guys do is unique and it's important and amazing. And you have a whole crew here today.

Beck. Can I call her that now? Beck. Are we on that level? Bex? We are Beck's and the crew. We're at the putting green. What are we doing at the putting green? I love this idea. This is a really fun game. So in between holes, the foursomes can come over and compete. We measure to see who gets the closest to the hole that they're shooting at. And they win a free day of golf here at Kimber Banks. Which a free round of golf, it's not like put putt putt, which I know you're really good at. I am. But this is not your average course. This is absolutely beautiful. So winning around a golf here would be amazing.

Anything you want to talk about other than the golf tournament and the put putt putt contest. Anything else coming up for David's Refuge? Well, June, we were very busy, of course, with events. But throughout the year, we just have a variety of events that caregivers can participate in as well as different fundraisers. So looking forward to the rest of the year, of course, we have events throughout the community over the summer, just sharing the mission of David's Refuge. We also have National Family Caregiver Month, which is in November. And right before that, We have our caregiver summit and wellness retreat in October, which will be in Syracuse this year, which we're very excited about at Hotel Syracuse.

Oh, that's perfect. Absolutely perfect. And here comes Kate. Yay. We're just completely sabotaging this interview. No, I'm kidding. How are you, Kate? You're great.

Kate Howell. Another one of the wonderful people from David's Refuge that came on the show. So here we are. I want to talk about one more thing. I love it. You have a basket of lemons on your table. Can you explain what is what's going on with the lemons? Well, they're great because you can squish them, but other than that, hold on, Kate knows the best about it's not when life gives you lemons. It's not when life gives you lemons. Oh, I blew it. I mean, that is one thing. Yeah. That's the way I take was when life hands you lemons and it's like a little stress squeeze ball. Right. It's the little things that I love. But either way, we're going to be here all day, set up by the putting.

green. Thank you for having us. Thank you for being here. Of course, we love David's refuge. And let's see what the day brings us. Maybe we'll get you golfing. Maybe. That would be a miracle. That would be a miracle. We've already got you driving a cart.

Yes. The first time. So let's see if you can get you golf. And I didn't crash. You did not. Not yet. Right. All right. More to come. It's tax time, y'all.

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