Panini America On Location: Sights, Sounds from Panini Heart of Dallas Skills Clinic

DALLAS — On a deceptively sunny, frigid Saturday afternoon, more than 150 Dallas-area Pop Warner athletes descended upon the Bishop Lynch High School football field for the inaugural Panini Heart of Dallas Skills Clinic, a unique community outreach program held in conjunction with tomorrow’s Heart of Dallas Bowl between Oklahoma State and Purdue at the historic Cotton Bowl.

While the field full of smiles was enough to keep most folks warm, special guest coach Tim Brown (the future NFL Hall of Famer and 1987 Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame) and several players from both Heart of Dallas Bowl teams were on hand to lead kids through a series of sweat-inducing, fundamentals-based drills.

The event was the centerpiece result of Panini America’s unique role as the official trading card and sports and entertainment collectibles partner of the Heart of Dallas Bowl presented by PlainsCapital Bank. It also provided a double dose of do-good for everyone involved: Local Pop Warner programs earned the opportunity to be part of a big-time New Year’s Day bowl game and Heart of Dallas officials engaged their bowl participants in a meaningful way while reinforcing to the community the primary objective and commitment of the Heart of Dallas organization.

As if being coached up by the NFL legend Brown and players from Oklahoma State and Purdue for two hours wasn’t cool enough, every kid who participated walked away with Brown’s autograph, a loaded goodie bag from Panini America and memories likely to last a lifetime.

But the fun didn’t end Saturday. Not even close. At tomorrow’s game (which will be televised on ESPNU beginning at 11 a.m.), the participating Pop Warner programs will watch the game from the truly unique vantage point of the Panini tent . . . on the field . . . just a short option pitch away from the Purdue end zone.

But we’ll have more on that tomorrow. Today, we’d like to bring you the sights and sounds of the inaugural Panini America Heart of Dallas Bowl Skills Clinic with the following video and gallery.

First, the video . . .

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNHFg-VETwo&w=600&h=338]

Now, the images . . .