Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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where have you gone? By that time, Faine's head was point- give 18- to 21-year-olds a place to live ing him forward to the NFL, where while they finish school and teach them he would be picked 21st overall by what they'll need to live more producthe Browns. He attributes his ability tive lives on their own. The residents to think one step ahead to his parents, learn how to eat healthy from a staff dia career military man and a school- etician and get a stable environment to teacher. help get them ready Faine's parents for the real world. adopted him when It took roughly he was seven days five years of fund old. He said they raising and plantaught him early ning to open the in his high school house to its first career that playing occupants a few football was a bonus months ago. Curon top of the degree rently eight kids and career doors it live there, and Faine could open for him. said he gets encourHis next forwardaged whenever he thinking initiative visits. is trying to provide When his 10-year NFL career came to an end "Any time somehelp for other kids in 2012, Faine held a stake in 17 restaurants one asks me about who didn't get the or bars in Ohio and Florida, his home state, as the Faine House, same parental guid- well as several other historic commercial real I always invite ance growing up. estate sites in the Midwest. them over to meet photo courtesy tampa bay buccaneers Earlier this year, the kids," he said. Faine opened a transitional house for "These kids are really great kids. They young adults who have grown too old were just born into a situation that was for foster care, but still need some help unfortunate. They got dealt a bad hand, getting out on their own. but they're trying to make the best out Foster care in Florida, like in most of it. states, ends the day a child turns 18 "It might be a small drop in the years old. Kids who bounce through ocean, but hopefully we can get andozens of different homes as teenag- other drop and another drop, and keep ers are suddenly left without a place adding on to it. Hopefully one day we to live. Many of them are still trying to can make a larger impact, but we are finish high school or complete a GED making an impact now and that's what course. Almost none of them have we're excited about." experience seeking a job, balancing a As with everything else he's done checkbook or taking care of themselves. in football and in the business world, The Faine House, a 10-bedroom fa- Faine has plans to expand the program cility in central Florida, is designed to in the future. ✦