Flag Football
Courtside
Anthony L. Cuaycong • Published March 2, 2025
When the Bynum Faith Foundation officially became recognized as a charitable organization in spring 2023, Camryn Bynum was already deep into underscoring his Christian and Filipino roots. Both were, needless to say, instrumental in framing his character growing up in Corona, California, and certainly when he felt moved to, as the nonprofit’s website noted, “leverage his platform to offer hope, assistance, and support to underserved communities in the United States and the Philippines.” By then, he was already the Vikings’ starting safety, if nothing else proof of his progressive body of work in the two years since the National Football League franchise drafted him in the fourth round.
Bynum became intent on doing all he could to provide assistance to underprivileged Filipinos in a visit to the Philippines during his rookie year. It was, in retrospect, providence, especially since he would not have otherwise been privy to the myriad problems faced by struggling communities in his mother Jennifer’s home country. As much as he had been touched by God, he, too, wanted to be the vessel for change as witness to his Christian faith.
Not coincidentally, providence was also how Bynum first met his wife Lalaine by chance in Dubai. There was instant chemistry, he said, and they got engaged not long after. Needless to say, they exchanged vows in the Philippines, and now devote much of their time steering the foundation’s outreach programs, including weekly food distribution in Manila and his yearly Camp Beezy. Initially set up to grow American football in the Pearl of the Orient, the latter is now committed to push for the formation of a Philippine flag football team in time for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
To this end, Camp Beezy played host to some 75 flag football players from the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries the other week in Cavite. Professional coaches subjected camp participants to a training regimen — and, of course, a series of games — designed to raise awareness of the sport. Given Bynum’s ultimate objective, the camp likewise sought to show how flag football’s unique set of rules benefits Filipinos and highlights their innate quickness, dexterity, smarts, and, yes, craftiness. After all, unlike American football, flag football allows little to no contact; instead, a tackle is made when a defender succeeds in removing a flag — in reality more closely resembling a pennant — on either side of the offensive player.
As with anything involving sports in the Philippines, the key is, to be sure, generating enough buzz to encourage and entice corporate support. For all the seeming advantages of Filipinos in the sport, financial backing is critical in terms of finding the best players, and then prepping them for the Olympics in three years. The good news is that this early, the endeavor already has one backer: service hospitality company RIESA Management, Inc., whose chief operations officer, Anthony Raymond, just so happens to be an avid flag football player. Still, is garnering critical mass wishful thinking? Don’t tell that to Bynum, who has encountered more than enough success amid adversity to know everything happens in His time.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
