The prospect of playing in a Super Bowl is usually enough to focus the mind of any participant on the task ahead. But for two of the key performers in Sunday’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints, there has been an extremely unwelcome distraction in the form of the earthquake that left devastation in Haiti on January 12.

Jonathan Vilma, the Saints linebacker, and Pierre Garcon, the Colts wide receiver, are two of the 16 players of Haitian descent in the NFL. While they are each trying their best to concentrate on beating the other’s team at Sun Life Stadium here on Sunday, the fate of relatives and friends in the stricken Caribbean nation is always in the back of their minds.

Both were born in the United States to Haitian parents. Vilma’s aunts and uncles survived the earthquake, but although Garcon has learnt to his relief, and after an anxious wait, that his closest relatives are safe, he is unsure about the fate of other members of his family.

“There are still more who need to be found,” he said. “I’m trying to think the best, but it is kind of hard right now, especially after all the bad things that have gone on.

“I think things are getting a little better, now that they are starting over and trying to rebuild and pick up where things left off. It has been hard, but it is part of life. Playing helps you get your mind off it a little bit, but then when I’m not playing, I sit around all day and think about it all the time.”

But Garcon is doing more than sitting around. Donations can be made through his website, garconauthentic.com, and he is supporting other groups on the ground. “The Northwest Haiti Missionary Group have been going to help in Haiti for a while now and we have teamed up together, doing the same thing to bring more help,” he said.

Vilma believes that the best thing he can do is to help his team to win the Super Bowl and then devote himself fully to more practical, hands-on work. “I watched the coverage on television a bit, but the news coming out was so grim, I had to put it to one side and start to concentrate on football,” he said. “In the position I’m in right now, where I’m really restricted in what I can do, it’s really about doing something positive, then being more efficient once the season is over.

“My intentions then are to go down there and be productive. You hear a lot of people just going and saying, ‘Look at the devastation’ and that’s what they’re reporting back. Well, that’s a given. I want to help, whether it be to clear out the devastation, try to help build homes. I don’t want to just look round and say it’s a sad situation. We all know it’s a sad situation. What can I do to help the situation?”

Both agree that the most important contribution that they can make this week may be to allow their high profiles to keep Haiti in the forefront of fans’ consciousness in a week when the talk is usually only of the points spread and the possible content of the Super Bowl television commercials. So while most of the players prefer to answer questions about football than discuss anything else, Vilma and Garcon are happy to have the subject of Haiti brought up as often as possible.

Garcon carried the national flag around the field after the AFC Championship victory over the New York Jets last month and wore a smaller one as a bandana during media day on Tuesday. “Hopefully, we will win and I will have it out there on the field with me,” he said. “I don’t think most people knew I was Haitian before this happened, but they know now.

“People need something positive in their lives and I’m just trying to do something for the community. There are a lot of bad aspects with being Haitian, so I’m just trying to let people and especially kids know we can make it and be anybody we want to be.”