Youth football players usually celebrate with teammates after scoring touchdowns. It’s not very often that they’ll get to dap up or dance with an NFL player.
On June 10, Plant City youths got to do just that with former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Ahmad Black.
That’s because Plant City hosted a CKB Football Camp at the Otis M. Andrews Sports Complex that day, despite the threat of rain and thunder. Run by NFL coach Kirk Broussard, it was the first time the Pensacola-based, nationally-hosted camp came to town.
Broussard, who most recently coached on Rex Ryan’s Buffalo Bills staff in the 2016-17 season, has hosted camps in Florida, California and Oregon since 2014. The Pensacola native began spreading throughout the Tampa Bay area in 2015 and had his sights set on Plant City for this summer.
“I just do it based on relationships,” Broussard says. “I had a relationship, previously, with the president of the Plant City youth football (Eric Lawson), and we kind of pitched the idea to each other, started putting some plans (together) and seeing the plans come into fruition with parents pre-registering for it. We thought we could have a successful camp based on the amount of interest that we started getting.”
Broussard likes to bring professional athletes to his camps whenever possible, and doing so also requires him to work his contacts. To link up with Black, who retired from the NFL in April, Broussard went through a mutual friend: former NFL running back Chris Rainey, a teammate of Black’s at both Lakeland High School and the University of Florida.
For Black, the opportunity to work with kids wasn’t one he could pass up.
“Just being out here with the kids, it’s the passion,” Black says. “These guys want to make it to the NFL. They want to learn. They’re eager. They’re hungry. I just like to be out here, giving back to the kids what was taught to me.”
Black shared his knowledge of the defensive back positions with the kids and did everything in his power to put smiles on their faces. Bouncing around the field with exuberance, Black was especially talkative during one-on-one drills with wide receivers and defensive backs. He was just as quick to congratulate a wideout for making a tough catch as he was to dance with a defensive back that would return a pick for a touchdown.
Broussard, his crew and the Dolphins personnel on hand, guided the neon-clad campers through skills and drills, covering everything from the offensive front to the defensive backs. They taught the benefits of proper nutrition and hydration, as well as the importance of staying in school and getting good grades.
“We try to get hands-on with the kids and relay the things that we’ve learned through our football careers, pros, college, into the kids on a fundamental basis … we’ve got to continue to hone the fundamentals of the kids,” Broussard says.
Of course, Broussard and Black also offered to share some “tips and tricks” picked up from their NFL experiences.
They also invited Black to tell his story in his own words. Though he was highly recruited out of high school, Black’s path to the NFL was far from easy.
“Don’t ever let nobody tell you you can’t,” Black says. “I’ve been told I was too small. I’ve been told I was too slow. It caught up with me in the NFL. It’s a big-man, fast-man game, to let them tell it. But I think I did an OK job out there.”
Black’s message runs parallel to the message Broussard hopes to convey to kids through his camps, whether in Plant City or anywhere else.
“I really want to relay that to the kids,” Broussard says. “That there’s no instant gratification in the real world. You have to earn your spot.”