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Bayonne High School graduate and current Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kenny Britt celebrates a touchdown catch during a game against the New York Giants in 2010. Britt recently donated money to his alma mater's football team so they could attend a camp at Penn State last month.

(Chris Faytok/The Star-Ledger)

Kenny Britt has dropped the ball plenty of times off the field, but the Bayonne native hasn’t forgotten where he comes from.

Britt, a current member of the Tennessee Titans and a former standout at Bayonne High School, helped pay the way for the school’s football team to attend a recent camp at Penn State last month, Bayonne coach Rick Rodriguez said.

Entering his fifth season with the Titans, the 24-year-old Britt donated $5,000 — half the total cost for 32 players to attend the three-day camp in State College, Pa., from June 27 to 29.

“I called him up and I talked to him and told him what we needed,” said Rodriguez, who coached Britt at Bayonne from 2003 to 2005. “I told him, ‘Now it’s your turn to help young Bayonne players’ who are in the same classroom that he was, wear the same uniform he did, wear the same helmet.”

“He said, ‘No problem.’”

After all, it was Rodriguez who paid for Britt to attend a similar camp at Syracuse University in the summer of 2004. That camp helped the little-known Britt gain his first bit of exposure and springboard his aspirations of playing Division I football.

Two years later, he landed with Rutgers University, where he starred for three seasons, setting a Big East Conference record with 3,043 receiving yards.

“It was the camp that gave (Britt) the exposure and opened up a lot of people’s eyes,” Rodriguez said.

“It was a chance for our kids to get great exposure at a big time college like Penn State. It was a chance for us to compete and get better and get coached by Penn State coaches. It was a great experience.”

After his productive career in Piscataway, Britt was a first-round draft choice of Tennessee in 2009. In four seasons with the AFC South team, the 6-foot-3 receiver has recorded 146 receptions for 2,354 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Britt suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the third game of the 2011 season, but returned in 2012 and played 14 games, posting 589 receiving years and four touchdowns.

But the talented receiver’s reputation has been sullied by a number of off-the-field incidents, including a one-game suspension in 2012 after being charged with driving under the influence last July. Those charges have since been dropped.

In April 2011, he was charged with leading police on a high-speed car chase through Bayonne and he later pleaded guilty to careless driving.

In June 2011, Britt was charged in Hoboken with possession of marijuana and was later fined $1,500 and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service.

“I’ve been staying in contact with him,” said Rodriguez. “I stress to him I want him to be a good pro, a true pro.

"Do the right things, that’s what a true pro does.”