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Recent Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie cornerback and Naval graduate Cameron Kinley knows well that bigger challenges await him in military service someday than being cut by an NFL team.
Kinley, a former Navy football standout, expressed nothing but gratitude and expectation to forge ahead to his next challenge. The Bucs waived the undrafted free agent on Aug. 15 amid initial cuts by the team.
“It’s not about what happens to you in life, it’s about how you respond to it,” Kinley wrote on Twitter a couple of days after the Bucs waived him.
Kinley first appeared at the Bucs rookie minicamp in May, but the Navy then denied him on delaying service later that month. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd reversed the decision in early July. The Bucs meanwhile made the effort to have him back, which Kinley thanked them for among the many other thanks he extended after his clearance.
Bucs head coach Bruce Arians spoke highly of him amid the Navy calling Kinley away.
“He’s obviously very important to the Navy … I would love to have him. I thought he showed promise,” Arians said in May per ABC Action News’ Kyle Burger.
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Behind The Eight Ball
Ultimately, the delays put Kinley behind the eight ball for making the team as The Athletic’s Greg Auman noted. Kinley “missed all of OTAs and mandatory minicamp before Navy’s decision was reversed,” Auman wrote. The Bucs also tabbed him “among the last corners to play” in the Aug. 14 preseason opener per Auman.
The former Midshipmen standout played significant snaps in an Aug. 14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Tampa coaches got a good look at him, “playing 48% of the team’s defensive snaps and 43% of special teams snaps” according to Buccaneers.com’s Carmen Vitali. Kinley posted six tackles but also got called for an unnecessary roughness penalty.
“Thinking about everything God has allowed me to experience in life thus far and can’t help but think about how blessed I am,” Kinley wrote on Aug. 20. “The craziest part about it is that I know that this is just the beginning.”
Kinley and two other players — tight end De’Quan Hampton and wide receiver Josh Pearson — became those first cuts by the Bucs when the team trimmed the roster to 87 players. Pearson didn’t make a catch against the Bengals, and Hampton only played three snaps per Vitali.
Kinley Teams Up With Bucs Center Ryan Jensen
Kinley joined Bucs center and military advocate Ryan Jensen for the U.S. Special Operations Command podcast, which came on Tuesday. They talked about “teamwork, adversity, and patriotism.” The full podcast can be heard on Spreaker.
Jensen, who does charity work off the field to support military families and veterans, talked about what it takes to play for a Super Bowl team and earning respect.
“I think for me, a lot of it is just, again, being consistent in everyday life, and doing things that are going to get me prepared to go play at my highest level, and for me, coming from a Division II school, you know, always having that kind of chip on my shoulder of where I came from,” the former Colorado State-Pueblo standout said.
Kinley related his experience of being a new guy at training camp to his initial experience at the Naval Academy.
“Yeah it’s been crazy. Yeah, especially kind of not being here the whole summer and coming right back and getting straight into it, especially with the vets … and it definitely felt like when I first got to the Naval Academy and I was trying to learn all the things about the military,” Kinley said. “And it’s almost like you couldn’t do anything right, you know, until you just took a step back and kind of realized what was going on.”
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