Editor’s Note: NFL PLAYERS, the NFL Players Association and James Brown will honor Camarillo and 15 other standout players for their off-the-field achievements at the NFL PLAYERS Gala Featuring the JB Awards on April 16 in Washington, D.C. Leading up to the event, NFLPLAYERS.COM will profile several JB Award winners.

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Greg Camarillo doesn’t think of Tuesdays as an off-day for football during the season. Instead, it’s a day which allows him to make an impact in the community. Each Tuesday, Camarillo attends an event that helps make a difference in the South Florida area.

“There are a lot of people out there in the South Florida area that come out and support us each week, so during my off-day I like to go out and support them,” Camarillo said.

Last season, Camarillo hosted the “Kids and Fins Publix Shopping Spree” for 100 children from Miami-Dade and Broward County Public Schools. At the event, more than 35 Dolphins players helped children and their families shop for a Thanksgiving meal to bring home for the holidays. The students were selected based on essays they wrote, with each receiving a $100 gift certificate to use for the shopping spree.

“Thanksgiving is a time to be with your family, and everyone in this community is a family,” Camarillo said. “This is our way to come together as a community and a family and show what we have to be thankful for and take time out to give back to the people that support us on Sundays.”

Camarillo knows how important support can be. He graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School in Menlo Park, Calif., without a football scholarship offer to a Division I school. Only Division III Washington University in St. Louis recruited him.

Despite the lack of athletic scholarships, he was offered academic scholarships to many prestigious universities such as Stanford and Harvard. His dream to play football was kept alive because of his dedication in the classroom.

In high school, the National Football Foundation selected Camarillo as the San Mateo County Student-Athlete of the Year. In the classroom, he was student body president, an American Legion state delegate and a member of both the National Honor Society and the California Scholastic Federation.

Ultimately, he chose Stanford over Harvard because he couldn’t imagine getting up in the morning and practicing in the cold weather.

“That was kind of a deterrent for me,” Camarillo said. “From an education standpoint, it wasn’t much of a drop-off to go to Stanford. The whole thing really came down to—would I rather be a backup and on a team that goes to a Rose Bowl or play more and be on a team that goes to an Ivy League championship? That was my mindset, just the chance to play in the Rose Bowl—[although] the opportunity obviously didn’t happen. That outweighed playing in the Ivy League.”

His academic accolades earned him a scholarship to Stanford, where he walked on as a punter and had to convince then-head coach Tyrone Willingham to play him at receiver. Camarillo made the most of his opportunity at Stanford, where he was a three-time Academic All-Pac-10 Conference selection, earning first-team honors as a senior.

His hard work and dedication paid off when the San Diego Chargers signed him as an undrafted free agent on May 16, 2005. After spending his entire rookie campaign on the practice squad and playing in a reserve role in 2006, he was later waived. The Dolphins then signed him, and the fans he helps support watched him excel and eventually become one of the most improbable starters in the NFL.

“I don’t have burning speed and am not the biggest or strongest guy. I play disciplined and tough. I take pride in outsmarting the defender,” Camarillo said.

Those characteristics are what make Camarillo the person he is today. He remains humble and gives credit to everyone who has helped him in his professional and educational journeys.
“I had a lot of people help me get to where I am today and without those people, I would have never made it,” he said.

In return for the help and guidance he has received, Camarillo started the “Charging Forward” program when he was playing for the Chargers. He currently is working to expand the program to the Miami area as well.

Camarillo said, “I started the program with my brother, Jeff, who is a middle-school teacher in Compton, Calif. The program awards opportunities to underprivileged inner-city youth who excel in the classroom. Jeff works with student-athletes and provides them with incentives for doing well. A lot of the kids come from broken homes and my brother and I are trying to be that role model and be that encouragement for them.”

Among those incentives are trips from Compton to San Diego, during which kids have the opportunity to travel to a Chargers game, stay in a hotel and meet the players. The program rewards youth who earn steady good grades as well as those who have improved their grades.

“We take a group of them down to the Chargers game twice a year. A lot of them have never been out of Los Angeles and it’s a chance to experience something they might never get an opportunity to do. In the offseason, I’ll go to the school and meet with students for lunch, talk with them and sign autographs,” Camarillo said.

Once a year, the Camarillo brothers hold a luncheon or a dinner, at which kids in the “Charging Forward” program have the opportunity to meet and speak with students who are in high school and college. The older students share their experiences and tell the middle-school students about how the program helped them in their lives.

Once the students are out of the program, Camarillo remains available to offer any advice or leadership.

“Every time I go back, I see a lot of students from previous years and I keep in touch with them,” Camarillo said. “There is one kid in particular who is struggling through school. I try to talk to him personally to help straighten out his life. He’s had a lot of ups and downs in his life and right now I’m happy to say he’s back on the up and hopefully we can keep him there.”

Throughout his football career, Camarillo, too, has experienced a lot of ups and downs. A knee injury against the New England Patriots on Nov. 23, 2008 ended his season last year.
But just like the kids he inspires, the community-oriented Camarillo vows to never give up and keep working hard.

“I’m not done,” Camarillo said. “I’ll be back strong.”

- Mathew Ratner, Red Line Editorial

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