Christmas is a great time of year around NFL locker rooms as veteran players making tons of money often take care of their teammates with extravagant gifts. We saw it earlier this week with Aaron Rodgers’ side-by-side Can-Am buggies for the offensive line. This time, Cam Heyward played Santa Claus with a nice gift for his fellow defensive linemen.
He shared a photo on Instagram of custom Yeti coolers with speaker systems built in from Live Round Sound.
Pictured in the photo, from left to right, are Isaiahh Loudermilk, Keeanu Benton, Yahya Black, Derrick Harmon, Heyward, DeMarvin Leal, Jack Sawyer, and Logan Lee. They also tagged Julius Welschof, Nick Herbig, T.J. Watt, Esezi Otomewo, and Alex Highsmith, so the entire defensive line and outside linebacker group must have received this gift.
It was a nice gesture from Captain Cam to treat the rest of the guys, many of whom are on late-round rookie contracts or minimum free agent deals. Guys like Keeanu Benton, who love fishing and other activities in nature, will surely make good use of this gift in the offseason.
Expensive gifts are nice, and I’m sure these weren’t cheap, but I’m a fan of the custom gifts with each player’s name engraved on the top of the cooler.
Despite the offseason hold-in, Heyward has always taken his job as a captain seriously. He ended a brief holdout in the offseason before the 2024 season because he felt a responsibility to the team as their leader. His 11 consecutive years as a captain makes him one of the most decorated leaders in franchise history.
While Heyward is undoubtedly getting long in the tooth for an NFL defensive lineman, he is still playing like one of the best in the league. The longer he can stick around, the better. He is helping stabilize the group while they transition to the next era, and that’s already off to a great start with guys like Benton, Harmon, and Black.