St. Louis Battlehawks quarterback AJ McCarron warmed up his arm to throw passes to hundreds of youngsters at his football camp on Saturday by handing out $200 gift cards and signing autographs on Friday night.
For the fourth year in a row, the former Alabama All-American preceded his annual football camp by taking some of the campers shopping at Academy Sports + Outdoors on Airport Boulevard in Mobile.
Fifteen youngsters who registered to attend Saturday’s ninth annual event were chosen to receive a $200 gift card to use at Academy Sports + Outdoors on Friday night. They fanned out across the store to make their selections aided by members of the Mobile Police Department and Mobile Fire-Rescue Department.
“I’m very thankful to Academy for teaming up with me,” McCarron said. “But it’s awesome to be able to give back to the kids in this community and something that’s just a blessing, and I’m very thankful to be a part of it.”
An All-State football and baseball player at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile, McCarron said he knows where he would have headed in the store if handed a $200 gift card as a youngster.
“I’m big into shoes,” McCarron said. “I have – and I might be low-balling – at least 40 pairs of shoes, so I love sneakers and being able to have different shoes in different colors to wear with outfits. Definitely shoes.”
Trinity Polk, a 13-year-old student at Semmes Middle School, was one of the campers who went shopping on Friday night.
“I got two footballs for my football team,” Polk said of her selections. “I got game socks and mouthguards for me and my little brother. I got a hat for my dad because he burns. And then I got shorts for under my girdle because my girdle is see-through.”
When asked why she didn’t load her basket with $200 worth of stuff for herself, Polk said: “If it’s just for me, then what’s the point. You’ve got to spread kindness.”
Polk has been playing tackle football since she was 7 years old. She’s going into her second year of middle-school football, and her favorite spot is middle linebacker.
She said she liked football because “it’s pretty much one big family and fun.”
Polk said she’s accustomed to being told girls don’t play football, but she hasn’t allowed that to dampen her passion for the game.
“When I first starting playing, I didn’t quit,” Polk said, “and that kind of got the message to everyone and people kind of stopped saying, ‘I need to quit’ or ‘Girls don’t play football.’ There’s still people to this day who have known I’ve been playing who don’t think girls should play. I see where they’re coming from because not many girls play in a boys’ league, and I play in a boys’ league because there aren’t many youth girls’ leagues. I see where they’re coming from, but at the same time, it doesn’t make sense to separate someone just because they’re not the same biologically.”
McCarron’s free football camp will be held at Mobile Christian on Saturday, with 550 youngsters registered to attend and another 100 or so walkups expected. The registered campers are coming from seven states – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas and Missouri. The Alabama youngsters live in 66 cities and towns.
McCarron served as the starting quarterback for two BCS national-championship teams at Alabama. While with the Crimson Tide, McCarron won the Maxwell Award, finished as the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy and set the Crimson Tide’s career records for passing yards and yards of total offense, among other marks.
A fifth-round draft choice of the Cincinnati Bengals in 2014, McCarron also played with the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Texans in the NFL before a knee injury sustained in an Atlanta Falcons’ preseason game sidelined him for the entire 2021 campaign.
McCarron returned to the field for the St. Louis Battlehawks of the XFL in 2023 and played for the team again in 2024 in the United Football League.
In two seasons with St. Louis, McCarron completed 367-of-550 passes for 3,732 yards with 39 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 17 regular-season games.
Between his two seasons with the Battlehawks, McCarron played in two games with the Bengals in 2023.
Stories by Mark Inabinett
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at@AMarkG1.