Kyle Van Noy opens up about being adopted

Robert Deutsch/USA Today Sports

Super Bowl Media Day usually gives you all kinds of cool stories from players and coaches that you may not have heard before.

Kyle Van Noy is one of those players  - he was adopted as a child.

Van Noy was adopted in Las Vegas when he was just a few months old. His wife's father and brother were adopted as well, so it's a subject very close to him and he wants to help others who have been in that situation.

ESPN:

"It's meaningful because I've lived it, it's a part of me, it's a part of my wife and her family," Van Noy said. "We really understand what it's like, what the process is like, and we've been positive outcomes of the situation we were in. So we like to share our message and hopefully it may go to someone else, or bounce off someone, like 'Man, if they made it through that situation.'

"I don't know how to explain it, but it's telling people it's OK to be born into this world in a different way and be with the family you're supposed to be with, and still be successful. That's kind of our message. It doesn't matter -- you can do it if you put your mind to it."

Since coming to New England, Van Noy has been very active in the community. This past holiday season, the Van Noy Valor Foundation provided foster families in Boston with a number of Christmas-themed decorations and winter jackets.

He also held an event at a restaurant earlier this year to raise money for adopted children in which team owner Robert Kraft and several players attended.

Van Noy says his main goal is to spread happiness to those who have been adopted.

"The biggest thing is to spread love and happiness," said Van Noy, who doesn't know the details that led to him being adopted. "A lot of people talk about giving back all the time. We just want to back up what we're doing -- we talk about it and we actually do it. We want to spread awareness and spread love into the world. It's crazy what's going on in the world sometimes.

"For me, I just want everyone to choose love over anything. If I can do that by raising some money and giving a family that's never had Christmas before a Christmas, that means the world to me. Or even hanging out with somebody -- it's not even money, it's just time. For me giving time to somebody that I can have an impact on, that's what makes me go."

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