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Kris Wilson talks about his foundation
Lousaka Polite, Miami Dolphins fullback, talks career, charity
Kenny Watson, Cinci Bengals star, talks about struggling team
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Which is why Kenny Watson, the former Penn State running back now with the Cincinnati Bengals, was at Franklin & Marshall College Saturday, running kids through football drills at a camp benefiting the Kris Wilson Foundation.
Watch the action at Kris Wilson's football camp
Wilson is a McCaskey grad with the San Diego Chargers. Watson is from Harrisburg, but he and Wilson don't really know each other.
"We develop that respect and that bond because of what we do and what we go through," Watson said.
Wilson's foundation held its second annual gala at Liberty Place on Friday.
About 75 people attended, and raised somewhere around $7,000, according to very rough estimates provided by the foundation. About 50 kids attended the camp.
Those figures are all a little off last year's numbers.
"It's obviously a very tough time to ask anyone to dig in their pockets," Wilson said.
Still, the foundation's first major goal is about to become reality: Kris' Lit Club, an Internet-based literacy program for kids being launched this week in cooperation with Boys and Girls Clubs of Lancaster.
"I figured if kids improve their reading skills, improve their literacy, then they can go in any direction they want," Wilson said.
Wilson is entering his sixth NFL season. At this point a year ago, he was expecting to become a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.
"Philly was not a good fit at all," Wilson said. "The things they do, or don't do, with the tight end don't fit my style."
Wilson was released by the Eagles, got a call from Chargers head ocach Norv Turner, asking if he was interested in coming west.
"Hell, yeah," Wilson told him.
He was on a plane to San Diego that afternoon.
"I didn't come back here for six months," he said. "That's our business. You've got to be ready to go when they call."
Wilson played special teams and gradually worked his way into the offense in a tight end/fullback role.
The Chargers have one of the planet's best tight ends in Antonio Gates, and Wilson is listed as No. 3 at the position.
But the Chargers use the tight end in a variety of ways, and Wilson at times found himself on the field with Gates.
He started at tight end in the Chargers' defeat of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC divisional playoffs.
"That's the thing that's been encouraging to me," Wilson said. "Even with the guys I've played with, like Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates, the coaches I've had have wanted to find a way to get me on the field."
Wilson was helped at the camp Saturday by Watson, Lousaka Polite (Wilson's roommate at the University of Pittsburgh now with the Miami Dolphins), McCaskey head coach David Given and assistant coach Damien Henry, and former Syracuse/Conestoga Valley wide receiver Darryl Daniel.
After the drills, the whole gang went to Leisure Lanes for some bowling.
"We just want to make sure the kids are having fun," Watson said.
Mike Gross is assistant sports editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at mgross@lnpnews.com.
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