Diggs tries to ‘pay it forward’
Bills receiver who recently signed $96M deal hosts free youth camp in D.C.
Stefon Diggs flew through the rungs of an agility ladder laid out on the turf of the Emery Heights Community Center in Washington, D.C., showcasing the precise footwork that has landed him in the upper echelon of NFL wide receivers.
On the ladder next to him, a young boy in a white camp T-shirt sprinted past with no regard for foot placement, reaching the end of the ladder well before Diggs.
“He cheated!” Diggs yelled while laughing. “You cheated!”
For nearly three hours Saturday morning, Diggs made his way around the field where he played youth football two decades before, participating in drills with the roughly 250 children who showed up to his “Diggs Day” camp. Along the fence were scatterings of Bills gear and parents holding their children’s No. 14 jerseys.
Diggs, who starred at Good Counsel High School in Olney, Md., before playing three years at Maryland, said he had always intended to host a camp near his hometown, but the effort was delayed by the pandemic.
“I wish I could have gotten the ball rolling quicker,” he said. “But better late than never.”
Diggs is entering his eighth season in the NFL, where he ranks among the best receivers in the league. In April, Diggs signed a four-year, $96 million contract extension with the Buffalo Bills, who acquired him in a 2020 trade with the Vikings.
“In my younger years, I was really just trying to see myself in the league and make sure I got some longevity in it,” Diggs said. “I was gonna make sure I did it at the right time.”
Now, Diggs said the camp will be an annual tradition, and he hopes that it will only grow in scale. Open to kids aged 6 to 14, the camp was free — a component that was essential to Diggs.
“He remembers people’s struggles about trying to pay for camps, and trying to get the extra money to pay for camps and get cleats, and that whole deal of being a football player,” Diggs’s mother, Stephanie, said.
“Everybody wants to have dreams of playing in the NFL,” Diggs said. “Why not give them something to start up?”
Even before reaching the NFL, Diggs had already begun to inspire young football players.
Among them is Maryland receiver Dontay Demus Jr., who was a volunteer coach for Diggs Day. Demus has traced a similar path to Diggs — a local receiver turned Maryland football standout with NFL aspirations. He said he has long idolized Diggs, who is seven years his senior.
“I used to watch Stef ’s highlights every day so it’s nothing I haven’t seen,” Demus said. “He’s a very good role model, and I’m just taking a whole lot of notes.”
Also in attendance Saturday were some of Diggs’s friends and a handful of family members, including his brother Trevon, who plays cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys.
The younger Diggs brother, who attended The Avalon School in Gaithersburg, Md., before playing college football at Alabama, also accumulated a throng of kids clamoring for pictures and autographs. (“My dad really likes the Cowboys,” said one.)
On Saturday, Stefon Diggs’s impact on the community was clear. At one rotation during the camp, he spiraled footballs high into the air, cheering when kids caught them and doling out high-fives even when they didn’t. He did push-ups, gave pep talks and sat on the turf to lead a series of stretches.
As he stood toward the back of the stretching lines, children craned their heads to get a clear view of the NFL star.
“Face that way,” he said with a laugh, pointing toward the front of the lines. It didn’t work. Many pairs of eyes followed Diggs as he walked around the turf. The receiver knows his impact.
“Hopefully we can kind of pay it forward and give not only experience but knowledge to kids early on. The earlier, the better,” Diggs said. “Hopefully you can change some lives along the way.”