Photographed by Darell Ann
For professional athlete Camryn Bynum, the mind is what separates the good from the great.
For those that travel through the Philippines’ dense concrete jungles or its open grasslands, you will notice streets are lined with basketball courts and makeshift volleyball nets. Bakal [iron] gyms with aged weight plates strewn across padded flooring or punching bags hanging from garages all serve as athletes’ common homeroom. The message is clear, regardless of place or circumstance, Filipinos find a way to exercise their love for the game.
This same message has been ingrained in Camryn Bynum’s subconscious ever since he was a child, having dabbled in multiple sports growing up in Corona, California. At five years old, he had found his love for American football, and has since then made a career out of the sport as a professional athlete. Despite his position playing for the Minnesota Vikings in the National Football League (NFL), he often found himself as a student more than an athlete.
“It’s hours of studying,” he explains. “Hours and hours every week of watching other teams.” For Camryn, the mental component of being an athlete is just as important as the physical. “You’re going into war, you have to know your opponent,” he shares. “People think it’s just people running around trying to hurt each other, but more often than not, we are in the classroom studying the game and watching film of the other teams more than anything else. More than practicing on the field, more than we lift weights, more than we run, 70 percent of the time spent at work is in the film room.”
At the highest echelons of any sport, the lines that draw each athlete’s physical traits continue to blur, as each contender shares nearly the same levels of skill as the other. Experience, strategy, and mindset become more of a deciding factor that can change the course of an entire match. It can be the difference that separates the good from the great. “As an athlete, the playing field is almost level because, at the top, everyone is as athletic and as gifted,” he says. “The way you separate yourself now as a professional [athlete] is through your mind.”
Despite never really being among the most physically talented, Camryn chose to find his strength through other means. “Since I was in grade school, I just found a love for the game. I was never really the fastest or the tallest, so I had to be smart. My best trait was that I was smarter than the other players and I knew when things were coming. In the NFL, that’s the thing; the best players are the smartest players.”
This mindset was cultivated at a young age, with his biggest inspiration being the late basketball legend, Kobe Bryant. “I really knew all the crazy stories about Kobe, so once I really dove into everything and started studying him, I realized okay, there’s a reason this [person] is great and that’s somebody I need to follow,” he shares. Despite the stark contrast between basketball and American football, the athlete found solace in the disciplined demeanor that his childhood hero had displayed throughout his entire career. He took it upon himself to adopt Bryant’s philosophies into his personal life.
Camryn has now turned his attention toward giving back to local communities in the Philippines, through his own non-profit organization, the Bynum Faith Foundation. “Filipinos love sports, but not enough Filipinos play sports,” he shares in a somber tone. There is still a financial divide that keeps certain sports from being more widely accessible. “I see how popular basketball is here, so I thought, what if we bring a whole different sport to the Philippines?” he asks. Part of his goal is to act as a bridge for these local athletes, by training them in football clinics where he shares his personal insights and experiences, emphasizing the importance of mental preparation, studying the game, and understanding one’s opponents. He hopes to inspire a new generation to adopt a disciplined, intelligent approach to their athletic and academic pursuits. Reflecting on his own journey of balancing education and sports, Camryn is proof positive that the game of life is played both on and off the field.
