Cainhoy football standout Robert Porcher gives back to the community

What’s equally impressive is Porcher’s longtime commitment to community.

During his NFL career, he contributed his time and money to countless charitable causes. For these efforts, he was named the Lions’ Walter Payton Man of the Year, the only NFL honor that recognizes both on and off-the-field excellence. Today, the Lions’ organization honors player community involvement with the Robert Porcher Man of the Year award.

He and his wife, Kimberly, established the Robert and Kimberly Porcher Cancer Research and Relief Fund, which has raised thousands of dollars for the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. They also founded the Robert Porcher & Friends Charities, which, among other activities, donates free Thanksgiving food to needy residents each year.

During his playing days, Porcher was a longtime spokesman for Michigan’s "Fatherhood is Forever" statewide campaign and he also established Porcher and Friends Invitational Charities, which helps groups in South Carolina and Detroit.

These days, Porcher is busy as a member of the host committee for Super Bowl XL, which will be played Feb. 5 at Detroit’s Ford Field. In addition, he is a partner in three Detroit restaurants, with a fourth one scheduled to open in January.

***image2***Despite his busy schedule, Porcher finds plenty of time to spend with his daughters, Morgan, 11, and Mallory, 5, and son, Robert IV, 7.

"I’m assistant coach for my daughter’s basketball team and it’s a lot of fun," he said. "She’s really, really tall, so tall they call her ‘Little Shaq.’"

When civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks died this fall in Detroit, Porcher took his children to Detroit’s civil rights museum the evening before her funeral.

"It was really moving," he recalled. "I’m glad my kids got to see it."

Porcher has fond memories of life in the Lowcountry. The son of Robert, Jr. and Marilyn Porcher, he grew up on Pinefield Road, which is located next to the Daniel Island Marina near Clements Ferry Road.

"It was a wonderful place to grow up," Porcher said. "I just love everything about it."

Life on Clements Ferry Road was distinctly rural when Porcher was young and kids from Mount Pleasant used to call him "country boy" when he attended Moultrie Middle School.

"I’d tell them, ‘Take a look at a map. I live closer to Charleston than you do,’" he recalled. "It was true."

Porcher also has vivid memories of when the I-526 expressway was being built.

"It was just a dirt road in those days and I’d go out there and drive on it," he said. "I had it all to myself."

Porcher still visits here as time permits and he has an abiding interest in life here. Despite his immense popularity in Detroit, there were times during his NFL playing days when he tried to get traded to the Carolina Panthers so he’d be closer to home.

"There’s no place like home," he said. "I’d talk to people from Detroit who just got back from a visit to Charleston and they’d ask me, ‘Why are you up here?’"

When the Panthers first came into the league, Porcher was hoping to be picked up by Carolina when it drafted its initial squad from teams throughout the NFL. However, Detroit discouraged the move by threatening to make him a franchise player, which makes a player unavailable to other teams.

***image3***"A few years later I tried again to get away to Carolina and they did franchise me," Porcher said. "By that time I was pretty dug in here and decided I must be meant to be here."

Porcher said he’s been stunned by the amount of development that’s taking place in the Charleston area. For his part, he’s been trying to reconsolidate and preserve family land that was sold in years past by purchasing parcels as they come up for sale.

"It’s just phenomenal what’s happening in Charleston, on Daniel Island and along Clements Ferry Road," he said. "I can’t believe how much it is changing."