E:60 Recap: Helen Bernstein Lettermen, B.U.'s Travis Roy, Connor Barwin

ESPN's E:60 returns with its second episode of the season offering up a heavy helping of the show's emotional profiles and features.

This episode focuses on the remarkable story of the Helen Bernstein High School Dragons football team, the new passion that drives the life of paralyzed former Boston University hockey player Travis Roy, and the inspiring tale of Philadelphia Eagle Connor Barwin.

Philadelphia Eagle Connor Barwin: 10 Mile

Connor Barwin (@ConnorBarwin98) had a long road from where he grew up in Detroit to his current job leading the Philadelphia Eagles defense. A second round draft pick of the Houston Texans in 2009, joined the Eagles after signing a six-year contract during the 2013 off-season.

Originally drafted as a defensive end, he made the transition to outside linebacker following the 2010 season and responded to the move with 11.5 sacks in 2011, the fourth-highest total in Texans franchise history.

A former tight end at the University of Cincinnati, who also played basketball in high school, Barwin moved to defensive end as a senior in 2008 and went on to finish third on the program's single-season sack list with 12, en route to first-team All-American and All-Big East Conference honors.

That's all part of the Connor Barwin story, but it's really what happened before college that set him on the path to be the man he is today.

Barwin, the youngest of four sons of Thomas Barwin and Margaret Bailey was born deaf. Numerous painful childhood surgeries gave complete hearing in his right ear and limited hearing in his left ear.

Nothing, not even pain or deafness, could stop him on the field.

He attended the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and as a senior was an All-state selection and earned All-League, All-Catholic, and All-District honors in football and.All-League in basketball as a junior and All-Catholic as a senior.

Unlike most NFL players, Barwin takes public transportation, wears "jorts," and does not live in a big house. He's a different sort of guy who does not fit the mold of NFL players.

An outspoken person, Barwin has also used his fame to advocate for important causes. He has spoken on issues like poverty -- partly because he grew up in Detroit.

Though he was essentially middle class, he grew up in the shadow of 10 Mile Rd., the notorious Detroit street. That upbringing, along with his youth filled with surgeries, helped him become the unique person he is today.

In order to find better competition, Barwin's parents sent him to play sports in an inner city-Detroit program.

"The first time I was there I was scared," he said. "I stood out, not as an athlete, but because I was white. I was the only white kid there."

The experience showed Barwin kids who who were struggling and things like gun violence that he did not see in his middle class neighborhood. They were lessons that have made him empathetic, fueling his social consciousness and public advocacy.

Those times also helped him when a gruesome injury cost Barwin his entire second season. He fought through it, made his way back on the field, leading the Texans in sacks.

His unique background has also made Barwin the rare NFL player to speak publicly in support of gay marriage. He said that the locker room was full of views and his teammates support him, even if they don't all agree.

Barwin's social efforts go beyond just talking. He works to revitalize parks in Philadelphia's inner city. He also is a popular speaker and takes public transportation not because he has to, but because it's the right things to do.

"When we move forward this year trying to make the world a better place, we're all going to do it together," Barwin said to a group of inner-city students.

"I feel like I'm in the right place doing the right thing," he told ESPN's Jeremy Schaap.

"It's important for me to to feel like there's a purpose. That your;e trying to make the world a better place, even if it's just a little bit," he said.

Travis Roy's New Passion

In just a matter of seconds Boston University Freshman Travis Roy saw his dream turn into a nightmare.

The athlete, who first put on skates before his second birthday, earned a a hockey scholarship to BU in 1995. At just 20-years-old, a few seconds into his first collegiate shift Roy crashed into the boards cracking his fourth and fifth cervical vertebra, paralyzing him from the neck down.

It was the type of devastating injury that crippled many people mentally as well as physically. That has not been the case with Roy whose post-injury life has been an inspiration to others.

His journey is detailed on his foundation's website:

Despite this ill twist of fate, Roy has continued to persevere and defy the odds. With an intense rehabilitation regime, he has regained some movement in his right arm. While coming to grips with his life as a quadriplegic, he returned to Boston University less than a year after his accident. Four years later, he graduated with a degree in public relations from Boston University's prestigious College of Communication. In the storied history of BU Terriers hockey, Roy's #24 is the only jersey to have been retired.

Since graduating Roy has been a popular motivational speaker and has done a lot of good for the community.

He struggled however to find something to replace his passion for playing hockey.

In a unique way it was baseball, not hockey, which proved Roy's salvation through Little Fenway,a 1/4th scale replica of Boston's Fenway Park in the backyard of Pat & Beth O'Connor's house in Essex, Vermont

"I knew I wasn't a hockey player anymore, so I had to figure out who I was going to become," he said.

"My identity was as a hockey player," he told ESPN.

Roy has found a second home at Little Fenway which hosts an annual Wiffle Ball tournament to benefit his foundation. Last year's event raised a record-setting $552,557 to go past the previous high of $505,000 set in 2013.

All money raised benefits people with spinal cord injuries. His comments on the event showed how big a place Little Fenway has in his heart.

"How can you make something perfect better?" asked Roy. "You come here and walk around.

You take a swing, you eat some food, you meet some friends and you get to experience the magic. The magic comes from energy, and then it explodes right here. We are all lucky to be part of it."

Roy's foundation has steadily grown providing not just help for people with spinal injuries, but also a place for Roy. It has helped over 1,000 people and funded millions of dollars in research.

Helen Bernstein High School: Lettermen

The Dragons of Helen Bernstein High School may play under the Hollywood sign, but the team's players are hardly living the stories existence of movie and television stars.

Coach Masaki Matsumoto wanted to change up the script for his players and show them that they mean something as more than just football players.

Before every season he ask the parents of everyone on his team to write a letter to their sons.

"We're trying to teach a lot more than just the game of football," Matsumoto said in an earlier interview.

"It's more than Xs and Os, wins and losses, we're trying to teach these young boys how to be better future husbands and better future fathers and we use football to get that accomplished."

The coach said that at least 60% of the athletes on his team come from a single parent home, mostly single moms, and he knows how important it is for those players to have a strong male role model "teaching them what is right, what is wrong, how to treat a women, how to treat people in the community."

For Matsumoto, it's not the final score that matters, it's how the players play the game.

"Just play good football, with perfect effort, and play for your brothers," he said. "That's all I ever ask for in practice or games."