Faulk fun in the sun

[RamDez]

Faulk fun in the sun





Cousins Kevin and Trev Faulk are home this weekend for a little fun before returning to the daily grinds of their respective NFL training camps.

The Faulks put on their second annual football camp Friday at Lafayette High with a middle school session. The high school session begins around 8 a.m. today at Carencro High.

More than 90 kids showed up for Friday's session to learn football drills and a chance to meet current NFL players. The camp is free of charge.

"It was a wonderful session," Kevin Faulk said. "We were real surprised to see the turnout. Today's turnout was more than we had for last year on both days put together.

"It was real good for us. Like I said, our friends helped out."

The camp isn't the first volunteer activity Kevin Faulk has been involved in this summer, supporting the Lafayette Community Health Care Clinic last month in a benefit golf event.

Some of those friends included NFL'ers Rohan Davey (New England), Daniel Graham (New England), Kenderick Allen (N.Y. Giants), Kenyatta Jones (free agent), Corey Raymond (retired) and Abbeville native Brandon Mitchell (Atlanta).

"We had great support," Trev Faulk said. "We had a coach from Lafayette High and a coach from Carencro. My old coach (Bobby) Green from Lafayette High came out. It's already grown in just a year's time."

Kevin Faulk said he's leaving next week for New England to start preparing for training camp. The former Carencro and LSU star is a third down specialist for the Patriots and also has three Super Bowl rings.

The Patriots are again considered a Super Bowl favorite.

"Everybody is favoring us to go back to the Super Bowl," Faulk said. "But every year we go into training camp with our mindset being the same thing - just try to play good consistent football and stay mistake free."

Faulk pairs with All-Pro Corey Dillon in the Patriots' backfield. The duo provides a 1-2 punch that gives opposing defenses fits. Faulk is mainly used in long distances situations, a role that his teammate said often goes unnoticed.

"Kevin is a great player and a hard worker," Graham said. "He doesn't get a lot of credit for what he does, but the team knows what he can do and that's all that matters. He's the perfect third-down back that you're looking for."

Faulk doesn't worry about how much or how little playing time he receives. He knows his role in helping the Patriots' win three Super Bowl crowns.

"My role is to be consistent and my role is to help the team out anyway I can," he said. "If they ask me to kick the ball, I'll do it. It's just the way the team is. The whole team is set up that way."

Both Faulk and Graham said the celebration of the third Super Bowl title is over and the team is ready to go for a fourth.

"We won it," Faulk said. "Now we're trying to win another one. It's time to get back to work. There's not too much time to think about it, because work is right around the corner."

"It's a whole new year," Graham said. "We don't even think about that. What happened last year doesn't affect what's going to happen this year. It's a whole new season."

Faulk's younger cousin, Trev, was a standout at Lafayette High and LSU. Trev Faulk was undrafted out of LSU, but signed as a free agent with Denver and later with Arizona.

The younger Faulk seems to have finally found a home in St. Louis, where he begins his second year this fall. He played mainly special teams last year, but enters this season No. 2 on the depth chart at middle linebacker behind Chris Claiborne.

"I just go out there and play," Trev Faulk said. "If they tell me I need to play on every special team, I'll do that and prepare as best I can to do that. Also, at the same time I'll prepare to play defense if they need me to do that as well. I just try to go out there and prepare to be a starter and whenever my time comes, I'll be ready."

The Rams squeaked into the playoffs last year and defeated Seattle 27-20 in the wild-card game, but lost to Atlanta 47-17. "In terms of wins and losses (we expected to do better), but going into the second round of the playoffs - the team was fairly young and we came out and did our best," Faulk said. "Hopefully, we'll be a little better this year."