ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Thanksgiving and football, there’s no better way to run off a hearty meal than stepping onto the gridiron.

However, for many of the teens on Wilson Foundation Academy’s football field on Friday afternoon, the game they played was more than just a football game. The brothers who organized it are more than just their friends.

“If he hadn’t done what he had for me, I wouldn’t even be standing here,” Trevon Burkett, 14, said. “I’d be out somewhere probably selling drugs or be on the streets trying to fight people.”

Burkett is referring to Marcus McClary, 18. Just this past fall, McClary and his brother De’kwan Sheffield, 18, began working on creating “Evolution Mentors.” The football game was their first big effort at giving Rochester teens 14 and older an outlet to express themselves and keep them off the streets. They used a sport that helped get them through high school.

“Football was a major mark in my life because within football, it helped me in school a lot more because I strived for great grades, but within football you have to strive even harder to play,” McClary said.

Sheffield and McClary aren’t new to mentoring. They were part of Roland William’s Champion Academy and were mentors themselves in high school. Burkett said that’s where he met McClary who helped him raise his grade point average to 3.5.

“We stayed after school about every day of the week, just him helping me with my homework, helping me with my classwork or stuff I was getting behind him,” Burkett said.

The brothers believe their young age also helps them connect to the teens.

“When you’re speaking to an adult, it’s a whole other thing because sometimes you can feel like they’re trying to press down on you,” Sheffield said. “A lot of times if you’re a kid, I just came from being their age so I know exactly how to talk to them, what to say and not to feel like I’m pressing too hard.”

While McClary and Sheffield have a deep affinity for football, both are open to playing other sports and holding different events.

“We’re trying to make a change in Rochester, make Rochester great or at least a better place for the future generations that are coming within Rochester,” McClary said.

McClary is currently a freshman at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida. He plays semi-pro football with the Tampa Bay Tigers.

Sheffield is a freshman at MCC. Both graduated from The Leadership Academy for Young Men earlier this spring.