No one was sure if the weather was going to hold for the first annual Bayou Boyz Youth Football Camp at Assumption High School in Napoleonville, Louisiana.
The event was hosted by Super Bowl champion running back Brandon Jacobs, All-Pro Green Bay Packers cornerback Tramon Williams, and Miami Dolphins lineman Jordan Mills, and the clouds stayed away as kids from ages six through 14 gathered to learn from their hometown heroes.
Mills was never concerned about the skies opening up.
“God blessed us with a beautiful day to have fun and teach these kids something,” Mills said. “I wasn’t too worried about it.”
With all three players at times scattered across the country, Williams said they all wanted to do it, but conflicting schedules always got in the way
“This is something that we talked about for years actually,” Williams said, “I just mentioned to somebody that life in the NFL is so busy. When you’re in season, there’s no time and in the offseason you still have to work to stay in shape and the little time you do have left, you have to spend with your family because time is so short. So we never got around to it because of that particular reason, life just hit us.”
It was a call he received from Jacobs, that pushed the plans forward.
“I had got a call from Brandon one day actually and he was like, ‘Man let’s do this camp, we’ve been taking about it for years man we gotta make it happen,'” Williams said. “So nonetheless, we really committed ourselves to it because we knew what we went through when we came in, we knew that it was a tough place to make it out of at that point in time so we wanted to shed a little light on this town, this region where there’s a lot of talent here.”
Sometimes Williams said, all it takes is a chance.
“It just takes for somebody to come here and look at some of these kids who work so hard and a lot of us feel that we deserve at least a chance whether it’s just college,” Williams said. “I feel like if you get some of these guys to college, that’s a success already because from there you can kind of go anywhere you wanna go. It don’t just have to be football, it can be a lot of different endeavors and that’s the light we want to spread on these guys, it ain’t really where you start at, it’s where you finish at.”
Mills though going through a big adjustment leaving Buffalo for Miami in free agency, knew he was going to be there.
“I told my coach I had this plan prior to it and he was ok with it,” Mills said. “As long as I don’t tell him the day of, he was fine with it so I got down here to put smiles on these kids faces and it was something to look forward to.”
Jacobs, who ran everywhere from the concession stands to the field to make sure everything ran smoothly, was proud of how it went and says it will only get better.
“The first one is over with, I felt like it was good, I think next year when we do it, it will be bigger,” Jacobs said. “Just trying to bring some awareness to the sport, get more kids out playing the game.”
When he heard the camp was happening, friend of the players Brandon Wilson was going to be there to support his colleagues and the community.
“This is giving back to the kids, to let the young kids see what it’s like to go the right rout and see what success looks like coming from a small community.” Wilson said. “So it was a no-brainer for me.”
Wilson says the camp is a prime example of people coming back to help the next in line.
“It shows a lot about their character,” Wilson said. “The people that poured into these guys growing up, so they are now building bridges for the kids behind them, so it shows a lot about their will and determination to give back and help out.”
While some of Jacobs’ biggest fans came out to be around him, he himself is a bigger fan of the people and the town that built him.
“I enjoy my community, I want everybody to succeed in my community,” Jacobs said. “It’s gonna take a big help from us who have already been there and done it to help these kids get by, making the best of everything and doing it the right way.”
Williams has accomplished quite a bit going from undrafted free agent to All-Pro and Pro Bowl berths. But that is not what he wants his legacy to be.
“It’s easy to be selfish at some point but when you really you live life, you understand that it’s not just about you, it’s about the future, it’s about the kids, it’s about what you can do to help them,” Williams said. “Super Bowls, those things, they’re gonna come and go and people are gonna forget about them, but the impact on the community goes a long way.”
Mills feels similar and does not want football to be his defining quality.
“My legacy is beyond playing football, what I do is not who I am,” Mills said. “Who I am is being a voice and having a platform to speak to these kids and give them knowledge about things I went through, and the same thing for Brandon and Tramon, they’re gonna speak the same wisdom and give them an opportunity to see us do the things that we did when we were younger.”
Jacobs, the holder of the New York Giants touchdown record, said the same.
“It’s important for us to come back and let people see you know we’ve been here,” Jacobs said. “We played on the same field, we’ve done it so it’s possible and let them know that they can do it as well.
One Response
This is a great story and very well done. The players are correct, this is what can make a difference and you too have made a difference by reporting the story. Great job!!!