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From football to fire: Chief Erron Kinney leads new team

Posted at 2:37 PM, Jul 02, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-02 14:37:16-04

Tight end Erron Kinney #88 of the Tennessee Titans makes a touchdown pass reception against Marcus Coleman #42 of the Houston Texans on November 28, 2004 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

SHERBORN, Ma. — More than 20 years after he helped Patrick Henry High School to a Virginia state football title,  Erron Kinney is leading a new team.  This one is made up of firefighters.

Kinney, 39, has taken over as the fire chief in Sherborn, Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reported.

Kinney, who played NFL football for the Tennessee Titans after a college career at the University of Florida,  told the Globe it was firefighting, not football, that became his passion at an early age.

“It’s always been there,” he said. “I became a junior firefighter when I was 13 in Ashland, Va. I got to hang around the station and do small stuff. I read books and wrote stories [he was editor of his high school paper] about firefighters. I loved the big red trucks that made a lot of noise.”

Since his six-year NFL career ended in 2006, Kinney has worked as a firefighter in South Carolina and Massachusetts. He was previously a fire chief in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee before he resigned for family reasons in 2014.

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