Big Daddy Youth Football Camp brings starpower to Long Island
Landon Collins reacts after making a tackle during the second quarter of a game against the Buccaneers at MetLife Stadium on Nov. 18, 2018 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There was a time not very long ago that Rich “Big Daddy” Salgado looked out on the football field at the youth camp he organized and saw only a dozen or so kids. There were barely enough players to fill one side of the line of scrimmage.
Salgado does everything big – befitting his nickname – and he was taken aback by the smallness of what he had created.
“I thought, ‘My gosh, this is not what I’m accustomed to,’” Salgado said recently about those early days of his annual Big Daddy Youth Football Camp on Long Island. “But we rode out the wave and we’ve been growing year after year.”
This year, Salgado is hosting the camp for the fifth straight summer and expects to have close to 100 campers between first and eighth grades on the field at New Hyde Park High School on June 24, 25 and 26. But what makes the Big Daddy Camp big isn’t just the number of participants, it’s the starpower that he culls from his contact list to help pitch in.
This year that roster will include former Giants Pro Bowl safety Landon Collins, Super Bowl winning safety Devin McCourty, and Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu. Others who will help coach the camp this year include former Jets head coach Eric Mangini, current Bills defensive coach Jim Salgado (Rich’s brother), LIU head coach Bryan Collins, and NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger.
The camp costs $125 for the three days and includes not only top-notch football instruction but also a legendary training table that features some of the top food on Long Island, including pizza from Umberto’s of New Hyde Park, barbecue from Famous Dave’s and sandwiches from a new partner with the camp this year, Chick-fil-a. The action on the field is from 5-7:30 p.m. all three days. Walk-up registration is limited depending on the space available so it is suggested that players pre-register at bigdaddyfootball.com. All levels of skill and experience are welcome.
Salgado grew up on Long Island, attended New Hyde Park High School and then played college football at Maryland. His full-time job is as an insurance agent and financial planner to NFL stars, but the annual camp is his passion. It’s become one of the premier football camps on Long Island and one of the few that can draw big-time names to the area during a traditional downtime on the NFL calendar.
Salgado said he is driven by something Baldinger said when he addressed the campers a few years ago.
“If each camper walks away from the camp taking one thing they can bring back to their school or their program or their friends,” Salgado said, “then we accomplished something.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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