Former NFL star Nnamdi Asomugha visited college campuses all across Philadelphia this week with 20 college-bound, yet at-risk, high school students as part of his Asomugha College Tours for Scholars Program.
Since 2006, more than 130 students have participated in the program, all of them going on to pursue higher education. The Philadelphia Daily News reports this year's group is one of the largest ever, with 12 students from Los Angeles, three from the San Francisco Bay Area and five from Philadelphia.
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"I said I still have to have some kind of impact in Philadelphia in some way," said Asomugha, who was cut by the Eagles prior to the start of the 2013 season. "When I was in Oakland and started this program, people would always ask me, 'What if you go to another team? Will you still keep the program going? What if you stop playing?'
"I always said, 'Yes,'" he added to told The News. "I wasn't going to back out on that. When I came to Philadelphia, I had spent so much time in Los Angeles and Oakland that I thought it could not get much more difficult for a young person growing up in those types of situations. Then you come to Philadelphia and it is repeating itself. The stories are the same. You get sad, because it is everywhere. I said there was no way I would leave here and not still be involved and try to help out the community and people here."
All the good publicity couldn't come at a better time for Asomugha, recently dogged by reports of trouble in marriage to Hollywood and Scandal star Kerry Washington. Even as the couple awaits the birth of their first child together, Asomugha has been forced to fend off rumors that he might be gay.
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This week, all such talk was more than placed on the backburner as Asomugha met students for arranged tours on such storied campuses as Penn, Princeton and Drexel Universities.
"I told them they would be surprised.," Asomugha told The News of what he told the students about their chances of gaining acceptance to such privileged universities. You don't need a 5.0 to go the Ivy League. These students have a unique situation and a unique background that gives them the opportunity to many more schools than people think."
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