There’s a reason why Brandin Cooks has been on five NFL teams in his career. He’s been traded four times, and he shares an NFL record with Eric Dickerson, but it’s hardly because of a lack of talent or any problems in any locker room. As a matter of fact, the wide receiver had a 1,000-yard season with each of his first four teams (Saints, Patriots, Rams, and Texans), and he expects to do the same with the Dallas Cowboys this upcoming season.
However, it’s his veteran leadership in the locker room and what he does off the field that makes him wanted. Cooks recently hosted a football camp in his hometown of Stockton, California, near the Bay Area, where he grew up watching Jerry Rice. Over 700 were in attendance at the sold-out camp, and given his upbringing and faith, Cooks feels a responsibility to not only give back to the community but the one he grew up in.
Cooks said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital, “I think it’s huge. I think it’s always important that you give back, but especially to the community that had an impact on you, you grew up in. Being from Stockton, wouldn’t change it for the world, love the place with all my heart. To be able to inspire kids and continue to give them hope and get them to come back and show face, I think, is important.” The camp was sponsored by He Gets Us, a movement that its agenda, per its site, says is to “move beyond the mess of our current cultural moment to a place where all of us are invited to rediscover the love story of Jesus – Christians, non-Christians, and everybody in between.”
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Cooks grew up with a faithful upbringing and credits it to his success. Cooks said, “For me, my faith is my foundation. Christ is, I truly mean it when I say it, everything I have, everything I’ve been blessed with, even from the good to the not-so-good. He’s always been my foundation growing up, and just continue to be able to be a light in this world today.” One of the initiatives of He Gets Us is to love your “neighbor.” He said, “Our neighbor is someone that may not look like us, talk like us, dress like us, or whatever the case may be; we were called to love, and God will take care of everything else. We just gotta continue to be that example on how to love, even in the most uncomfortable moments.
He continued, “I definitely lean on [my faith,] but I also remember and don’t forget who I am, the impact I can have on a team on and off the field and in the locker room. For me, I just look at it as an opportunity to be able to go around and make my mark on different cities, different people, different locker rooms, still at the same time producing at a high level. I look at it as a great thing in a sense – I’d rather that than get cut five or six times. That’s the way that I look at it.”