INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis Colts safety Cam Bynum walked off the practice field Thursday eager to join the efforts to provide earthquake relief in the Philippines.
Bynum has Filipino roots through his mother, Jen, and has a home in the Philippines, too. His wife, Lalaine, also is Filipino and they were married in the Philippines in March 2023. He's even been a strong supporter of the Philippine flag football program.
So the long journey across
the Pacific Ocean has become a regular thing for the Bynum family when he gets an extended break from practice. Only this time, Bynum intends to help in the recovery effort.
"I'm not going to the Philippines yet, I have to film something for the NFL next week so it's holding me a little longer but as soon as that's over, I'm right back to the Philippines especially with the earthquake that just happened,” he said after Indy wrapped up a three-day minicamp. “I'll be able to go there and am thankful I have time off to go and actually make a difference."
The 7.8 magnitude offshore quake was one of the strongest to hit the Philippine archipelago in a half century. It struck Monday off the southern province of Sarangani, killing at least 37 people and displacing tens of thousands.
Bynum feels fortunate because his family was not impacted. And though none of Bynum's friends were killed nor injured, he's saddened that many of their homes were damaged. The good news is there will be plenty of extra hands around to help.
“It's a community thing so everybody's trying to help bring other people back up," he said. "So you see a lot of people coming together through a hard time and that's the whole spirit of the Philippines.”
Bynum grew up in California and attended Cal before the Minnesota Vikings selected him in the fourth round of the NFL draft. He's expected to be a key player in the Colts secondary for the second straight year despite the many changes team officials have made this year.
He's never been shy about sharing his cultural heritage and two years ago, he even did a dinner table video with his mother and two other family members during which he discussed Filipino culture and food.
But with training camp one month away, these trips are never true vacations.
Bynum must strike the proper balance between football, rest and now helping to organize rebuilding projects with the help of the Bynum Faith Foundation.
The schedule for the next few weeks is somewhat familiar for Bynum — 7 a.m. workouts at a facility used by Filipino Olympic hopefuls and using flag football players as his scout team. The difference: Instead of spending time at the beach, he'll be trying to shine a light on the damage caused by the earthquake and the resilience of the Filipino people.
“With our foundation, we're going to do a lot of outreaches to assess the needs of the area," he said. "I know they don't have power. They haven't had power the last few days, no clean water with all of the pipes breaking and everything. I think that's going to be impactful to bring a lot of people, and a lot of eyes to know the destruction that happened so we can help as many people as possible."
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