‘Good for the soul,’ Texans’ Frank Ross holds third annual ‘Coaches’ Cuts’ program, benefiting Reach the Homeless

HOUSTON – A homeless Houston man woke up Friday morning after sleeping under a bridge. Instead of giving into despair, as many might under his difficult circumstances, he told himself a good day was ahead of him.

That premonition proved to be correct. Informed by a passerby that a special event for homeless individuals from Reach the Homeless had been arranged, the man decided to attend.

Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who grew up homeless in Tampa, Fla., with his entire family living in a single hotel room, recounted this story at Empire Barber Studio, the venue for Texans special teams coordinator Frank Ross’ third annual ‘Coaches Cuts’ program.

“The man said when he woke up this morning that he told himself he was going to have a good day,” Al-Shaair said. “You’ve got to manifest things and believe in things that don’t exist. Those are all the things that I learned when I was in that situation. When you’re in that situation, it’s easy to look at the negatives. Talking to him and he’s positive, you can guarantee a chance for a positive result when you have that mentality. He was sitting under the bridge and somebody came by and told him about this. Something like that, what’s the odds of something like that happening? He’s sitting under a bridge and he doesn’t know how, he doesn’t know when and how come. I think that was pretty cool. That’s literally the type of things I went through. You have to believe that life can get better for you. Seeing something actually happen and how life can get better for you, it just warmed my heart.

“People don’t understand how much somebody like Frank how much he can change people’s lives. You never know what people are going through. Everybody has something going on in their own individual lives. Just trying to find the good in what you have and not what you don’t have. There’s a saying in Islam, I’m a Muslim: ‘If you’re grateful for little things, God will give you great things.’ It’s either way you look at it. If you think it’s bad, it can get worse. If you think it’s good, it can get a lot better. I think that was the biggest thing listening to him, just his gratitude for where he is. Outside looking in, mentally, he’s in a much better space.”

The day included much more than a fresh haircut and a shave.

There were showers from Moving Waters Houston, a mobile shower unit. There were free meals from Olive Garden on Kirby, plus gift cards. Clean clothes. Teeth cleaning and whitening from Hiner Family Dentistry.

Plus, haircuts from several barbers and Ross, who taught himself how to cut hair during his college days as a student-athlete playing football at John Carroll University, and encouraging conversations.

Ross was visibly emotional while discussing the impact of these interactions.

“Good for the soul,” he said.

Ross emphasized his desire to help others, to give back, to leave these men, ideally, with everlasting hope.

“This isn’t football, it’s our community,” said Ross, who was joined by Al-Shaair, Desmond King, Ben Skowronek, D’Angelo Ross, Troy Hairston and Desmond King. “It’s our town. I’m thankful to be here.”

Coordinating with his wife, several Texans staff, including Morgan Kleinschmidt and Omar Majzoub, and Misty Richardson from Reach the Homeless, which does community outreach serving between 300 and 800 homeless people in a day, and Empire Barber Studio owner Julian Diaz, Ross was grateful for all of the help he received to make this happen. The barber shop, frequented around the year by several Texans players as clients, got power restored a few days ago after devastating storms damaged the facility. They’re back up and running now.

“For them to get up and running and still cut hair to help the community today, it’s incredible,” Ross said. “We’re doing as much as we can for a small group of men in our community, trying to help someone get off on the right foot, not only today, but tomorrow and let these guys take a couple of steps forward. It’s not about football today. It’s about helping people in our town. We’re so luck. I’m in fantasy land over at NRG. We get to play a game for fun and get paid for it. Not everybody has that.”

Reach the Homeless’ outreach includes a routine of daily encouragement notes, making food and hygiene bags, distributing them and passing out information as well as taking individuals to shelters if there’s space available.

Al-Shaair, new to the Texans after signing a three-year, $34 million free agent deal this offseason, learned during the special teams meeting that Ross cuts hair and initially thought he was joking.

“It’s huge, man,” Al-Shaair said. “It was so crazy. I’m in there listening. He explained the event and it aligned with everything I hold dear to my heart as somebody who grew up homeless, in and out of hotels and places like that. Seeing somebody in his position in Frank in the NFL with all the success, trying to give back, I’m thankful to have someone like that whose heart matches what I’m about.”

Diaz has been working with Ross for the past three years and loved his vision for doing more for a smaller group.

“It turned out good,” Diaz said. “It’s huge, it’s major. I’m very grateful for the opportunity. I’m very thankful.”

Diaz said Ross and he met years ago and discussed his idea for collaborating with barbers to boost those less fortunate in the community.

“He did a great job coming up with the idea,” Diaz said. “It’s a huge blessing. We didn’t know if we could do this. It’s real big. It’s of emotional. We’re good. We’ve got power. The outside of the shop doesn’t look the same, but we’ll bounce back. The main thing is to get these guys looking good so they can get back on their feet. They’re dealing with more than I am right now.”

Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com