Panthers WR, Minnesota native creates scholarship to help Black students pay for college

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers wide receiver Brandon Zylstra was heartbroken following George Floyd’s murder. The Minnesota native grew up in a small town called Spicer, approximately two hours west from where Floyd was killed last summer.

“To see that happen in my home state in which I consider my city, I was just like we’re not like that. Minnesota isn’t like that,” he said.

Zylstra donned Floyd’s name on the back of his helmet last season as part of a league-wide initiative to honor victims of systemic racism or police violence. For the Panthers receiver, that alone wouldn’t be enough.

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“I can be super naïve. I accept my faults but growing up. I did not know racism was still a thing,” he said.

His best friend growing up was Black, and so were a few of his closest teammates while playing professional football in Canada. Each of them allowed Zylstra a window into their experience.

“One of the first experiences I had when I was out in Canada, we were at a bus stop, and I was with two of my teammates. I just remember standing there and the way somebody looked at us and then we got on the bus, and I think they went and sat on the other end or went and sat in the back.”

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“I started to pick up the vibe, and I looked at those guys and I was, like, is it really like this for you guys?” he asked.

They told him it was.

“They started going through personal stories and the only thing I could do right then and there is just apologize,” Zylstra said.

There’s more he can do now.

The Spicer native recently created a scholarship fund for Black college students to fulfill a promise he made to himself, which was to do something.

The fund, posted on bold.org., is designed “to support an ambitious and determined Black student who may not have the financial backing to pursue their dreams.”

“Yes, I’m only helping change two people’s lives, maybe directly changing two people’s lives, but you have no idea what these two people are going to do,” he said. “They might go touch 400 people’s lives each.”

For more information on Zylstra’s “Road Less Traveled” scholarship, click here.