By Jim Gehman, Player Engagement Insider
Mudville’s “Mighty Casey” may have struck out and left the team’s fans disappointed, but Tennessee Titans’ Jurrell Casey is doing everything but that.
In his sixth year with the Titans, the defensive tackle, who was drafted out of USC in 2011, is among the team’s all-time leaders with 31 career sacks. Following the 2015 season, he was selected to play in the Pro Bowl.
“Everybody looks forward to getting to the Pro Bowl,” Casey said. “You display your skills every Sunday in front the nation. That’s just showing that players and also fans are paying attention to my play style and the things I’m doing out on the field. Everybody knows you want to be a Pro Bowler, you want to be a Hall of Famer, and all you can ask for is the people around in the different organizations to recognize your skill set.”
Casey is also being recognized for what he’s doing off the field. He is the Titans’ nominee for the annual Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. It recognizes a player for the commitment he has demonstrated in helping others in the community.
“It means a lot. It’s showing that I’m doing what I’m supposed to do in the community,” Casey said. “And it’s giving me the chance to really put my face out there to be able to get on a broader scale and be able to help more and more people as much as possible.
“When you get these recognitions, that means other people are more willing to help, other organizations want to work with you and that is just setting up a bigger platform for me to be able to go out and help those that are in need.”
A newlywed, Casey and his wife, Ryann, were married in July. Soon after that, they founded the Casey Fund.
“We wanted to find a way that we can make a change in the world and were going through, ‘What foundation should we start up? What type of group do we want to work with? How do we really get it all started?’ Those were the kind of questions that we were coming up with,” Casey said.
“After going over everything, we decided we don’t really want to just work on one group. We don’t want to just focus on one thing, so let’s see what’s another way we can really help in all ways and every cause that’s possible.
“We talked with a couple of our financial manager teams and they came up with the idea of putting together a fund. That allows you to raise money and be able to help any group and any nonprofit that you wanted to help. That’s basically how we came up with creating the Casey Fund.”
The nonprofit has already teamed up with Project Return in Nashville and has plans to do the same with other groups in Tennessee and in Casey’s hometown of Long Beach, California, where he has held free youth football camps the past two years.
Being able to give back to both communities means a great deal to Casey.
“I wish I would have had a lot more people come back in my area and be able to help out and give us the learning tools that I’m trying to be able to give back to the youth these days,” Casey said. “To be able to show people that I’m here and I’m trying to make sure we make a better world for them, that’s everything that makes me happy. That’s why I love giving back. Not too many things really get me down, but putting a smile on other people’s faces, that’s what really gets me going every day.”
Something else that gets Casey going is his role as this year’s spokesperson for the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville. He is donating his time and likeness to ad campaigns and partaking in community events hosted by the organization.
“For an organization to see you as a valuable person to come and lead their organization, it speaks volumes about what your character is on the field and also off the field and what the community and the people around you see in you,” Casey said. “That just shows my upbringing and what my mom and the people around me have instilled in me. And that’s all I live about, representing the name on your back in a positive way. And be able to make a change. For United Way to come and ask me to be their spokesman, I definitely was excited about it.”