This Week in NFL Do-Goodery: Sam Darnold, Thomas Davis, Players Coalition
Every healthy NFL player is entrenched in training camp at this point but that isn’t stopping them from bettering lives in their communities and beyond. Here’s a roundup of NFL players making a difference:
A quick note, every NFL franchise regularly incorporates community service into their operations. For example the 49ers gave VIP training camp access this week to first responders. The NFL has a bevy of programs and initiatives that touch the lives of many sectors. So why is this roundup exclusively devoted to players? That’s easy. They are far too often painted with a narrative out of their control, especially in this period of extreme divineness. Not only must they fight powerful propaganda, they have to contender being given a bad name from their own ranks. For every bad seed there are 100 players using their platform for good. Let’s celebrate those guys.
– Jets QB Sam Darnold made a $3500 donation to the football program of his alma mater San Clemente Tritons, the school tweeted.
– On Wednedsay, Malcolm Jenkins, Duron Harmon, Devin and Jason McCourty,Torrey Smithand others from the Players Coalition wore #SchoolsNotPrisons t-shirts to bring awareness to criminal justice reform. The back of the shirt reads, “Nearly 5000 kids are in adult prisons and jails.”
Jenkins explains the impetus for the mass messaging in a series of tweets that begins here.
While @KingJames is investing in our youth with his school, our government is pushing our youth into into a cyclical justice system and denying the opportunity for education and enrichment. @playercoalition #thefightcontinues pic.twitter.com/n1GxTZhzvG
— Malcolm Jenkins (@MalcolmJenkins) August 1, 2018
– Panthers LB Thomas Davis took two dozen kids from the West Greenville Community Center on a back-to-school shopping spree. Davis’s Defending Dreams Foundation provided $150 for each child to spend on supplies ranging from shoes to backpacks. Greenville is near and dear to Davis’s heart as his wife is a native.
– Free agent OT Laurence Gibson called out Bingo numbers at an aside living facility in Kingwood, Texas this week. The facility reached out to several NFL layers and Gibson volunteered.
“I just like giving back,” Gibson told the Houston Chronicle. “It doesn’t cost anything to give your time back, especially for people who gave it to you first.”
– Browns DB T.J. Carrie told reporters that he was so inspired by LeBron James opening a school for at risk youth in Akron, that he is actively bolstering his foundation’s efforts. Carrie started his T.J. Carrie Foundation in 2016 while in Oakland to provide children with equational opportunities. He has also heavily donated to the American Heart Association. Carrie unsent open heart surgery at 15 to correct a birth defect.
– Patriots LB Kyle Van Noy took 53 kids and adults from Reno’s Koinonia Foster Homes & Family Services to a Reno Aces baseball game. A Reno native, Van Noy loved baseball growing up and wanted to provide a unique to those who would not otherwise have one.
