In between organized team activities (OTAs) in the spring and the official start of training camp in late July, NFL players have their largest chunk of uninterrupted vacation time all year.
How they spend it, however, varies greatly from player to player.
Some, like twin brothers Devin and Jason McCourty and their New England Patriots teammate Matthew Slater, choose to get involved in the community and tackle political issues with a personal touch.
On a recent day, the three players refereed a political forum about the five candidates who are running to replace Boston’s outgoing district attorney. Topics covered during the meeting included mass incarceration, the juvenile system, immigration, and police-community relations.
Other players, like Josh Norman and Demario Davis, have used their offseason downtime to lend a hand to complete strangers. After seeing reports about the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, Norman and Davis went to a store in Texas and spent about $10,000 on supplies like towels, blankets, and toiletries.
After stuffing the supplies into backpacks, Norman and Davis headed to a downtown San Antonio bus station where immigrant children and families are being housed, to distribute the packs. Then, they took the kids and families across the street to a BBQ restaurant and let them order whatever they wanted from the menu.
“I didn’t want to stop there,” Norman said. “I wanted them to see that America can be a joyous place, to have a time here when they could enjoy life. You don’t have to come here and be put in cages and be treated like you’re an animal.”
Those are just two ways that NFL players have been spending their time away from the gridiron. To see more, including what Blake Bortles, Kenyan Drake, and Brian Robison have been up to, read the full story at Sports Illustrated.
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