Asomugha was a first round draft pick in 2003 out of California.
Oakland Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha has been named one of two athletes to receive the Jefferson Award. The Jefferson Award is known as The Nobel Prize of public service.
Along with Tyrus Thomas of the NBA he will be honored in Washington D.C. as two members of a select group of fifteen. Past winners include General Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
This year marks the first time that athletes have been honored. Other honorees include unsung heroes at the community level, schools and companies.
“It’s something I am very humbled by,” Asomugha said over the phone Monday. “And very grateful of. People are paying attention to people helping out in the community, and it would be something if someone else saw that and they went out and did something positive.”
In the month before training camp starts, Asomugha plans on taking disadvantaged children on cross country educational trips, raising money for orphans in Nigeria and helping former President Bill Clinton with his Global Initiative program.
The Raider cornerback founded the Asomugha College Tour for Scholars, which is an annual college tour and mentoring program provided to high achieving students.
Asomugha is also the chairman of his family’s foundation, Orphans and Widows in Need, which provides basic services such as food, shelter, and medicine. The foundation also offers scholarships along with vocational and literacy training to orphans in Nigeria.
Asomugha is a seven year veteran who has 291 tackles and 11 interceptions in his career with the Raiders. He has one career interception return for a touchdown.
It sure seems that some athletes deserve our respect and applause and Nnamdi Asomugha definitely gets mine.
