BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns don't want to have to turn to punter Corey Bojorquez; it means the offense stalled out on a drive. When they do, though, Bojorquez often steps up big—but Bojorquez isn't just helping the team with good field positioning when he boots one long.
This season, the Browns punter is putting his foot towards a good cause.
"We wanted to help raise money for them, do something special for them," Bojorquez said. "Every punt we get in the 20, we're going to donate some money, raise some funds for those kids, help them out however we can."
Bojorquez and his family are donating $1,000 for every punt he kicks inside the 20-yard line to University Hospitals' Angie Fowler Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Institute
"Angie's Institute is a really specialized center at University Hospitals that's dedicated to providing care and research to patients with cancer, with a really unique and very special focus on teens and young adults with cancer," said the institute's director, John Letterio. "We very heavily depend on this kind of philanthropic support to bring the best therapies, the latest therapies and clinical trials to Cleveland...for Corey and his family to designate our programs their as their charity this year really means a lot to those families and certainly to us."
The initiative was one that Bojorquez didn't tell many people about. He shared a link on social media for those who felt moved to join him in his fundraising efforts, which can be done by clicking here.
It came as a happy surprise for people like Bojorquez's special teams coordinator, Bubba Ventrone.
"I honestly did not know that. I'm glad you've informed me about that. Hopefully, there's a lot of contributions made," Ventrone said, smiling. "He's a great guy, great person, doesn't surprise me that he would do something like that."
So far this season, Bojorquez has punted inside the 20-yard line 11 times, and while the Browns hope to get the offense going to avoid having to send Bojorquez out to punt, when he does, this initiative makes it a little more worth it to help Cleveland youth in this way.
"As a longtime Browns fan, I hope that Corey rarely has to punt, but I will say that every time he punts, I'll be thinking about what they've done and recognizing that they're part of a really special team at Rainbow," Letterio said.
Helping Cleveland, to Corey and his family, means helping his personal community.
"One thing that I think everyone wants to find in the NFL is a place you can call home, and that's what this has been for the last almost four years now. So to really be more integrated with the community, be a part of it, it means a lot to us," Bojorquez said.
