NFL deputy general counsel to be honored at MSSN golf outing

Rockville Centre resident Larry Ferazani, who is the National Football League’s deputy general counsel, is the honoree for the 38th annual Mount Sinai South Nassau Golf Outing, slated for May 16.

Ferazani said he credits MSSN with saving his life after he had a near fatal blockage in his heart.

The outing will be held at three of Long Island’s most prestigious and challenging golf venues: The Seawane Club, Hewlett Harbor; Rockaway Hunting Club, Lawrence; and the Rockville Links Club, Rockville Centre. All net proceeds will benefit Mount Sinai South Nassau.

Heralded as Long Island’s largest hospital golf outing, this year’s event will include a return of the popular after-golf barbecue at The Seawane Club.

“Larry Ferazani is an exemplary leader in business and in the communities we serve,” said Mike Sapraicone, the co-chairman of the golf outing and a member of the hospital’s board of directors, according to a news release. “His commitment to our mission to improve health care on the South Shore has touched the lives of our patients and staff,”

Sapraicone, who is the president of Squad Security, LLC, co-chairs the event with Jeffrey Greenfield, who is the managing member of NGL Group, LLC.

“After two years of pandemic restrictions, it will be great to get back together again at Seawane after a round of golf with all our supporters,” Greenfield said, according to the release. “We are grateful for all the support we receive from the community for this outing to help the hospital. It’s a great cause.”

Sapraicone and Greenfield lead a 42-member golf committee that has helped grow the number of golfers entered in the event and garnered the support of dozens of local businesses through golf outing sponsorships. Last year’s outing raised more than $615,000 (with a net of $412,577) for the hospital.

Ferazani said he credits the hospital’s Emergency Department and cardiac staff with saving his life after he experienced severe chest pains on his Long Island Rail Road ride home from work in Manhattan.

As deputy general counsel of labor for the NFL, Ferazani oversees the league’s management counsel, which is responsible for negotiating and administering its collective bargaining agreements with its players and game officials.. Ferazani was one of the lead negotiators of the 2019 collective bargaining agreements for the players’ and referees’ associations, which govern every facet of the players’ and game officials’ employment relationship with the 32-member clubs of the NFL and the league, including compensation, work rules and discipline.

Ferazani is also responsible for ensuring teams’ compliance with the NFL salary cap and administering the league’s player benefit programs, which have more than $8 billion in assets. As part of the league’s salute to health care workers, Ferazani helped arrange for four hospital employees — two physicians, an Emergency Department nurse and a respiratory therapist — to be among the 7,500 vaccinated health care workers who received free tickets from the NFL to attend the 2021 Super Bowl in Tampa Bay.

Before joining the NFL, Ferazani served as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York and was a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, assigned to the New York office. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Suffolk Law School, and a longtime resident of Rockville Centre, where he is raising three daughters with his wife, Christine, who is vice president of the Rockville Centre Board of Education.

Town of Hempstead Councilman Anthony D’Esposito will receive the hospital’s Community Service Award for his longstanding commitment to the hospital at the golf outing.

“We have been able to expand services to the South Shore in part because of the support we receive from the community,” said President Dr. Adhi Sharma, per the release. “We are grateful that our honoree Larry Ferazani and Councilman D’Esposito have agreed to help us make this outing even more successful than before.”

Anthony Cancellieri, who is the co-chair of MSSN’s board of directors, echoed Sharma’s sentiments.

“The last two years have been especially challenging for the hospital and our communities due to the pandemic,” he said. “Our friends stood by us and supported the front-line staff. Larry and Councilman D’Esposito were among those who were always there to help in any way they could. We are delighted to recognize their efforts.”

D’Esposito has been a community partner in the hospital’s mission and vision to provide convenient access to preventive community health programs and services in the Town of Hempstead. That includes the MSSN Town of Hempstead “Vaxmobile,” which has administered more than 11,000 free vaccines to residents of the town since it was launched last March, especially in hard-hit communities where vaccination rates were lowest. D’Esposito also supported expanding Covid-19 testing sites and the popular sunscreen dispenser and sun safety program at town parks, beaches,and pools.

A former New York City Police Department detective, D’Esposito has used his wealth of experience in public safety to protect residents, which includes launching the lifesaving Narcan training program for town employees, community groups and residents. He has also been at the helm of the town’s pandemic response, leading its Covid-19 taskforce.

A resident of Island Park, D’Esposito serves on the board of directors for the Francis X. Pendl Nassau County Firefighters Museum and Education Center and is on the board of the Limb Kind Foundation. He is a Second Battalion delegate and a member of the New York Association of Fire Chiefs, as well as an honorary member of the Nassau County Firefighters Pipes and Drums.