NEW SMYRNA BEACH — NFL safety CJ Gardner-Johnson held tackle wheels, completed various agility drills and ran a 40-yard dash.
It wasn’t a scene from the new Buffalo Bills signee’s private practice regimen before training camp begins in two weeks, but rather a demonstration at his self-titled youth football camp held on July 12 at New Smyrna Beach Sports Complex.
It was the third straight year the Cocoa native hosted the camp to give local middle and high schoolers the opportunity to observe and participate in NFL-adjacent workouts with a hand-selected coaching staff. New Smyrna Beach head coach John Wilkinson, Gardner-Johnson’s high school coach at Cocoa, was also a central figure.
Not-so-coincidentally, the clientele for Sunday’s NFLer-led camp was largely filled with athletes from those two cities, but it was open to anyone that made the trek to New Smyrna Beach.
“It was good to see some Cocoa kids, and then a lot of New Smyrna, some Titusville, Rockledge, Merritt Island. Merritt Island had several kids here, so it was good,” Wilkinson said.
The first edition of Gardner-Johnson’s camp was successfully held in 2024, but inclement weather significantly abbreviated it in 2025. The rain that plagued last year’s version held off Sunday and was replaced by a breezeless heat that prompted an “It’s hot!” from Gardner-Johnson upon his arrival.
There was work to be had nonetheless, which campers completed with a mix of determination, grimacing and sweat on their faces as Gardner-Johnson made the rounds to each station.
Learning from a guy that started for the Philadelphia Eagles in their 40-22 thumping of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 in 2025, and the trainers and physical therapists that helped him make it possible, seemed like a fair tradeoff.
The camp-provided burgers, hot dogs and Gatorade afterward also didn’t hurt. Gardner-Johnson didn’t skip out on personal mementos either, as he stayed behind to take dozens of pictures with campers and sign various articles of football gear.
Most importantly, he shared the advice about the industry where he’s found success during huddles and to those that battled the heat to ask him questions later on.
“I come from New Orleans, very small-knit, community based,” said James Banks, a camp coach and professional performance trainer that first met Gardner-Johnson when he was with the New Orleans Saints from 2019-2021. “But even then, we don’t really have a whole lot of guys doing what he’s doing out there. So the fact that he’s able to bring this back to his community and give back in a way where it can benefit a lot of kids, I think is very important and shows where his heart is.”
Gardner-Johnson is known around the NFL, both positively and negatively, as one of the league’s premier smack talkers. Those close to him, like Banks and Logan Lauffer, a sports physical therapist and strength and conditioning coach, call it a “winner’s mentality” that’s hard to argue.
On top of his Super Bowl ring he earned with the Eagles, Gardner-Johnson has been a key component in other playoff defensive backfields. A couple years prior, Gardner-Johnson was a part of an Eagles team that lost to the Chiefs in Super Bowl 57. Sandwiched between his two Philadelphia stints was a year with the Detroit Lions, who finished the 2023 regular season 12-5.
After signing a one-year deal with the Bills on March 13, Gardner-Johnson is once again on a contender.
A resume like Gardner-Johnson’s had an effect on the campers.
“You could see the energy, how the kids were running around. They were happy,” Banks said. “They were, I would say, grateful that they got this opportunity to be out here and able to just move around and be around a guy of his caliber. … How many kids are fortunate enough to be around a Super Bowl champ and really have access to someone like him?”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: CJ Gardner-Johnson, Super Bowl champ, hosts camp in New Smyrna Beach
Reporting by Zach Allen, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Zach Allen, Daytona Beach News-Journal | USA TODAY Network
