Matt Leinart

By Rob Lawrence

   NFL players get precious little time away from the pigskin to enjoy themselves in pursuits other than football. So, it would be reasonable to expect to find former star USC quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner and backup quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, Matt Leinart, to be vacationing in Southern France. But no, that is far from the truth.

   On a blisteringly hot Thursday afternoon Leinart was on the campus of Cal State Long Beach holding his third annual football camp held June 25 through June 28 for children ages 7 to 14. The camp is a part of the Matt Leinart Foundation, which works diligently through a variety of charities to give back to disadvantaged children.

   “I always said if I ever had the opportunity and the resources to have my own foundation I would do it,” Leinart said. “It’s been great. We’ve done a lot of great things and I just want to keep it going.”

   Being selected 10th overall in the 2006 NFL draft certainly made resources available to start his foundation, which he promptly did three years ago.

   “I want to help kids—underprivileged kids,” Leinart said. “Kids who don’t come from a lot of money and kids who come from inner cities who may have troubled homes, but just need some positive role models in their lives.”

   One of Leinart’s major goals for the foundation is to make his Urban Youth Football League go national. The UYFL is targeted at children who may be too overweight to play the sport, or children whose parents are constrained financially and can’t afford to play football.

   At the football camp Leinart was hard to pull away from the kids, even during breaks Leinart would toss the football with the kids—Leinart didn’t appear to be holding the camp as a photo opportunity or for name recognition.

   “Matt is around here a lot, which is good because I hear a lot of camps, like this, where it’s run by star players—the players aren’t there a lot,” James Friedricks, 12, who was a participant at the four day camp said. “So it’s really good to see him out here working with all of us.”

   Besides Leinart, there are other NFL players who helped him coach during the camp. Thomas Howard and Lorenzo Neal from the Oakland Raiders, Colt Brennan from the Washington Redskins and Keith Rivers, who plays for the Cincinnati Bengals.

   “This isn’t a job to come out here, to see these young men and women go out and try to play better football. This is an obligation, because they are our future,” Neal said. “These young kids, they look up to us. We are the people who are supposed to pass on our legacy.”

   Football and the physical skills necessary to play are not the only lessons being taught at Leinart’s camp. Leinart and his other 26 coaches are trying to pass on strong morals to the children that are synonymous with being successful in football as well as in life.

   “I always kind of tell my story where I was born cross-eyed and I was overweight, and just how hard I worked to get where I am now,” Leinart said. “Anything is possible, just work hard and have fun doing it.”