To say that offensive lineman Orlando Brown Jr. has made a massive impression on the city of Cincinnati and Bengals fans in just a few short months is a huge understatement. Aside from his physically-imposing size, Brown has made the rounds at major events in The Queen City, as well as endeared himself to the fan base with a number of interviews, including one right after he signed his free agent deal with our own Orange and Black Insider.
In our chat with him back in March, we asked him about his charitable endeavors back in Kansas City. He was looking for a charity to identify since landing in Cincinnati but did an incredible amount of work in the fight for Diabetes research. His work with Mercy Hospital netted around $50,000 in a single endeavor, and he was looking have a similar impact in The Queen City and for a similar cause.
“So, I’ve done a ton of work with Children’s Mercy Hospital out here in Kansas City...I’ve also done work with TrialNet, which is basically the research of Diabetes. It allows you to track the antibodies you have...and knowing if you’re capable of becoming a Type 1 Diabetic,” Brown told us a couple of months ago.
“For me, the cause and effect of Diabetes hits home for so many reasons—one being that my dad (former NFL offensive lineman Orlando Brown Sr.) passing from ketoacidosis, which is a diabetic coma,” he continued. “He (Brown, Sr.) didn’t know he had diabetes—it was just a mishap and one of those situations where his sugar level rose high, and he went into a diabetic coma.
“And, second, my brother has been a Type 1 Diabetic since he was in fifth grade...and my best friend Mark Andrews (Baltimore Ravens tight end and former Oklahoma teammate of Brown, Jr.’s) is a Type 1 Diabetic,” Brown said with emotion in his voice. “It’s just a disease that hits home for me.”
While his focus is on the disease in general, he is honing in on youth education in diabetes, so that children can be properly informed and reach their full potential—be it on the football field or otherwise. That being said, Brown, Jr. has identified the Greater Cincinnati Chapter Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation as the target of his next act of philanthropy.
He’s having a big event on June 10th in the form of a public signing of items. In conjunction with 513 autographs, he’ll be at their store from 12-2 p.m. ET on 6/10, signing autographs for a fee, with proceeds going to Cincinnati’s JDRF chapter.
Additionally, we at Cincy Jungle and The Orange and Black Insider have created our own donation platform to help the cause. Please click here and help us reach the goal to help him out and properly welcome him to Cincinnati.
Here, Orlando talk about how the disease of diabetes has impacted him in this video below from our OBI interview with him back in March:
If you’re unable to join us live here at Cincy Jungle or YouTube for every episode, all of our podcast content is available here on CJ, the Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio and Google Play Music apps, our Orange and Black Insider YouTube channel, as well as through Megaphone and, as always, on iTunes! Thanks for listening and go subscribe to our channels to be notified when we’re going live and when new episodes are available!
Loading comments...