Troy Vincent is an Eagles Hall of Famer. He knows this team is getting a precious Super Bowl opportunity.

PHOENIX — At 9 a.m. on the Tuesday before the Super Bowl, Eagles Hall of Fame cornerback Troy Vincent is trading his old football spikes for dancing shoes, bopping along to Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic” among a sea of first-grade students.

Under a blue tent that blocks out the Phoenix sun at Bernard Black Entrepreneurial Academy, Vincent and Tommi, his wife, are hosting their annual Safe Zone Activity Day with their family’s charity, Vincent Country. The event provides a day of food and activities to elementary school students in an underserved area close to the Super Bowl. To the tune of laughter and music, Vincent hands out water bottles to his newfound, miniature teammates.

“This is the day where I can smile, I can have fun, I can put my hair down a little bit,” Vincent laughed, brushing an imaginary lock of hair away from his bald head.

At the conclusion of the festivities, Vincent will relinquish his position of dance maestro, returning to his NFL executive vice president of football operations duties in preparation for the big game. Vincent took up the role in 2014 after serving as the league’s head of player engagement for four years, all on the heels of a 15-year NFL career primarily spent with the Eagles.

Come Sunday, Vincent won’t be fixated on matchups and schemes like he once was as a player. Instead, he’ll work to maintain the “integrity of the game,” from guaranteeing the functionality of the sideline technology to ensuring that the officials aren’t “injecting themselves in the game.” But as Vincent sits at a classroom table in between activity sessions, he points out the similarities that underscore his transition from player to executive and philanthropist.

“The role has always been the same,” Vincent said. “Been intentional about the work. Community work. Been intentional about serving not only the community, but serving the locker room. It’s always been about the game. The game has done more for me than I can ever do for it.”

After a collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin, Vincent spent the first four seasons of his NFL career with the Miami Dolphins, who selected him seventh overall in the 1992 draft. Vincent, who hails from Trenton and attended Pennsbury High School in Fairless Hills, Bucks County, signed as a free agent with his hometown Eagles in 1996.

Returning to the Philadelphia area provided Vincent with an opportunity to play in front of his grandparents, Julia and Jefferson, who raised him. But that wasn’t the only incentive — when Vincent signed, the Eagles drafted standout Notre Dame cornerback Bobby Taylor the year prior. Together, under defensive coordinator Emmitt Thomas, Vincent thought he and Taylor could form a formidable starting tandem.

“They called us Batman and Robin,” Vincent said.

Over the course of eight seasons together, Taylor and Vincent combined for 889 tackles, 47 interceptions, 15 forced fumbles, 17 fumble recoveries, and three touchdowns. Between the two of them, they have six Pro Bowl nods and one All-Pro designation. Their partnership, coupled with the presence of defensive backs Brian Dawkins and Al Harris, equipped the Eagles with a daunting secondary.

As a unit, Vincent said that they played a brand of ball that the city grew familiar with following the Reggie White and Buddy Ryan era of the late 1980s. But while the Eagles made five postseason appearances throughout his tenure, including three trips to the NFC title game, Vincent never reached the Super Bowl.

“We delivered each and every day,” Vincent said. “Did not win the ultimate prize, which people remember winners and champions. We got to the championship game multiple times. Fell short. But we felt like we developed and created a culture and a brand that people, the fans, were happy with.”

That’s why Vincent bristles at any mention of his partnership with Taylor in comparison to the Eagles’ current vaunted starting cornerback tandem in Darius Slay and James Bradberry. Competing in different eras and different systems, their responsibilities differ — Vincent and Taylor played almost entirely man coverage and traveled everywhere along the line of scrimmage. Plus, opposing teams treated Vincent’s Eagles differently with Dawkins — “the best Eagle that ever has put on the uniform,” Vincent asserted — on the field.

Regardless, Slay and Bradberry have a fan in Vincent, who enjoys watching their “swagger” on the field.

“They’re doing something that we didn’t have an opportunity to do,” Vincent said. “We didn’t deliver in the [NFC] championship games. They not only delivered, but they’re playing for the ultimate prize: a Lombardi Trophy.”

From the Morrisville Little Bulldogs youth football team to the NFL, football taught Vincent lessons of resiliency and teamwork. It provided a structure in his life consistent with the values of hard work, dedication, and preparation that his grandfather, a World War II veteran, instilled at home.

Upon Vincent’s 12th year in the league, when he became a member of the Buffalo Bills, he began to think about what his life might look like after his playing career. He quickly decided that he still wanted to be a part of football in some capacity, wanting to give back to the sport that gave him more than he could ever repay.

“The love and passion for people, the love and passion for the game itself, and what the game does for communities has always been in here at the age of 52,” Vincent said. “That fire still burns.”

So when Vincent isn’t pouring over 41,400 plays from the season four to five times each, analyzing what the league can do better from a coaching and officiating standpoint, he’s dancing with students on the Tuesday before the Super Bowl. The emcees leading the activities remind them that they are “created on purpose for a purpose,” the theme of Tuesday’s event.

When the Super Bowl leaves Phoenix, the confetti will get swept away and the billboards will be taken down. But Vincent works to ensure that both he and the NFL leave behind something that transcends football.

“This is what it’s all about,” Vincent said. “The game is the game, but this is the real impact.”

The Eagles are one win away from their second championship. Join Inquirer Eagles writers EJ Smith, Josh Tolentino, Jeff McLane, Marcus Hayes and Mike Sielski on Gameday Central Sunday at 4:30 p.m. as they preview the game at inquirer.com/Eaglesgameday