Darnell Dinkins is a member of the Browns. He doesn’t pay mere lip-service to giving back to a community.
Dinkins said this won’t be the last visit he will pay to Cleveland students. The 29-year-old football player plans to adopt a city school – or maybe more than one – and give the kids incentives to study and set goals. Those incentives could include trips to sporting events or behind-the-scenes tours of Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Dinkins and his Maleness to Manhood Foundation adopted a school in Baltimore last season when he played for the Ravens.
“I didn’t endure all these hardships to keep it to myself,” he said.
Which school or schools Dinkins will adopt has yet to be determined.
He plans to use the same program he did in Baltimore where homerooms compete against each other to collect “yards” for attendance, citizenship and homework. Top-scoring homerooms will get rewards.
Dinkins shared his own hardships with the 85 students at Genesis, a school for disruptive teens.
He was raised by his mother in a roach-infested home in one of Pittsburgh’s toughest neighborhoods, he said.
“I saw friends shot and killed,” he said, but seeing his mother’s determination influenced him the most.
An injury his senior year at the University of Pittsburgh kept him out of the NFL draft, he said. He became a juvenile probation officer and saw how children and their families were just giving up.
He was determined not to let go of his dream. He finally got picked up by the New York Giants and went on to the Ravens. In March, he signed a deal with Cleveland worth more than $2.1 million.
But his college graduation photo dominates posters the football player signed for Genesis students. Education, he said, “is something no one can take away from you.”
Dinkins hosts an annual camp in Pittsburgh each year for his foundation. Part of his program also includes giving student athletes coursework in preparing for the SATs.
Dinkins has been doing this even while he has earned the league minimum. Not exactly chump change, but not the stuff with which most people try to do foundations.
