The Colts’ newcomer explained how The Hitman influenced him as a football player growing up.
Indianapolis, IN — During Indianapolis Colts Media Day last week, safety Camryn Bynum sat down with JJ Stankevitz, a writer for Colts.com and the team’s PA Announcer, to essentially introduce himself to the fanbase.
In a less formal setting than normal, Bynum chatted about a plethora of things. From the honor it is to represent the franchise’s first-ever number zero jersey (and second-ever defensive back to sport a single-digit number), to his sports-wide influences in Manny Pacquiao and the late, great Kobe Bryant, Bynum’s 7-minute availability provided a sneak peek into what makes the veteran safety tick.
In particular, Bynum’s ties to the Colts go back further than his recent contract signing. After sharing that he feels the collective fanbase of Indiana sports is a unified one, he revealed that his older brother was a Colts fan growing up, despite them being from California.
“Whenever I see a picture or video of Lucas Oil [Stadium], it looks super turnt every single time. Especially with me growing up in California, it was weird that my older brother was a Colts fan.. but now I see why.”
After being asked the story behind it, Bynum was taken aback as if he’d never really thought about it until then. “I have no clue,” said Bynum. “Probably because they were good when we were kids. We loved Bob Sanders, too.”
Bob Sanders, aka The Hitman, is one of the Colts’ greatest gifts of yesteryear. A heat-seaking missile who was shredded to the gills while only standing 5’8” tall, Sanders was truly one of a kind. The 2007 Defensive Player of the Year may have had his career cut short due to a litany of nagging injuries, though this wasn’t enough to keep Sanders from etching himself in NFL lore and history books for years to come
The full-circle moment is one Bynum both marveled at and appreciated. After finishing out his rookie contract with the team that drafted him, the Minnesota Vikings, the 5th-year player now resides in another Midwestern city, something he didn’t necessarily expect as a Californian kid.
What Bynum is familiar with, however, is his remembrance of Bob Sanders’ greatness. When asked to expand on what it was about Bob Sanders that he (and his brother) gravitated toward, Bynum shared that influence at length.
“He used to just kill people. He was smaller. He was that guy that was always flying around, just hitting people no matter how big they were. He was just fearless out there,” Bynum explained. “Another thing is he’d always hit people’s legs and make them flip. As a kid, that’s like a cartoon or a football movie. You’re watching The Little Giants, and you see all of the big hits and everything, and that’s what he made happen in real life.”
Camryn Bynum is determined to leave his mark in Indianapolis, bringing a top-tier trio of leadership, ball skills, and tackling to the Colts’ backend. Although Indy’s depth at safety remains scarce, the starting safety tandem of Camryn Bynum and Nick Cross has the potential to blossom into a modern-day Bob Sanders-Antoine Bethea combination. The bar is incredibly high, but this pair of 23 and 26-year-olds has everything in front of them.
