Dish-Houston

The kids went NUTS as the Houston Texans’ defensive end J. J. Watt and offensive end Ben Jones along with the American Heart Association kicked off the NFL PLAY 60 Challenge with more than 1,000 students on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at Pin Oak Middle School.

The NFL PLAY 60 Challenge is a six-week program sponsored by the American Heart Association, the Houston Texans and the National Football League (NFL). The program is designed to help schools create a healthy lifestyle for kids by helping them form habits that will last a lifetime.

The NFL PLAY 60 Challenge is a month-long contest aimed at encouraging children to exercise at least 60 minutes every day. Watt and Jones played “Texans Feud,” a game show focused on health and nutrition facts, with the children. Jones won and in an impromptu press conference with attending media after the game Watt joked saying Jones must have cheated somehow and they would figure it out later back at the stadium. 

With kids spending a lot of time on video games, television and computers studies are proving they’re not getting enough physical activity. Six out of 10 children 9 to 13 years old don’t participate in any kind of organized sports or physical activity outside of school. Even more alarming, only one in four kids get 30 minutes of physical activity each day.

Today, nearly one in three children and teens in the United States are overweight or obese. This epidemic is taking its toll, as more and more kids are developing conditions and diseases typically associated with adults — including hypertension, coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes. If this trend continues, many believe this current generation will be the first in American history to live shorter lives than their parents.

It is clear these kids had an amazing time and were absolutely inspired by these hardworking and dedicated men!