George Martin: A Real Giant

Let's hear it for former New York Giants defensive end George Martin, who's successfully completed his cross-country Journey for 9/11.

You don't get to call yourself a hero just because you won a Super Bowl once. You get to call yourself a hero when you walk 3,003 miles across America to raise money for the fallen heroes of 9/11, the suffering rescue and recovery workers who need someone like George Martin - call him Ground Hero - to make a difference for them all these years later.

And when "A Journey for 9/11" ended yesterday morning in San Diego, Martin, co-captain of Bill Parcells' champion 1986 Giants, was asked if he felt as if he had won another Super Bowl.

"I feel as though I've won the Super Bowl," Martin said over the phone, and then laughed as he added with a powerful pride that had overwhelmed his trademark humility and selflessness: "In this case, they didn't name Phil Simms MVP - they named George Martin the MVP!"

Our other unsung heroes, the policemen and the firemen, were waiting to embrace the Giant Among Men as he crossed the finish line at Embarcadero Park North in San Diego, along with cheering John and Jane Doe. Martin, 55, had walked through 13 states and Washington, DC, had lost 41 pounds.

"I couldn't believe, after leaving the George Washington Bridge [nine months ago], it was finally going to be over," Martin said. "It was absolutely surreal."

Martin's journey began Sept. 16, and it raised over $2 million. Hackensack University Medical Center (N.J.), North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Systems and the Mt. Sinai Medical Center will match the donated funds in medical services. For Martin, the walk into America's heart revealed a human spirit that put to rest any apprehension a young man growing up in the segregated south cannot help but harbor.

You can go here if you'd like to donate.

They've just passed the $2 million mark raised.

God bless George Martin.