This time around, Fluellen made sure his inaugural camp -- the Andre Fluellen Summer Football Camp -- was unveiled, even though the NFL lockout complicated matters.
"I wanted to do a camp last year; I wasn't able to do it. I was for sure going to do one this year, but the lockout kind of messed everything up because I didn't know when I was going to be back; I didn't know when they were gonna call," the Detroit Lions defensive tackle said. "About a month and a half ago, I was like, 'You know what? I don't think it's a good idea because the day I say I want to have the camp, we might have to be in training camp. They might call us back.'"
Fluellen's parents, Charles Sr. and Judith Fluellen, encouraged their 26-year-old son to proceed with his plans anyway.
"My mom and dad, they were like, 'You just go ahead and do it. If something changes, it changes and you can't help it, but just go ahead and have it. If it works out, it'll be good and it'll kind of roll into next year,'" Andre Fluellen recounted. "And that's what happened, so I'm glad it happened the way it did."
Fluellen would like to see the camp grow in its second year, bringing in others from the community to talk to the kids -- "anybody who's gone on and done greater things, not just talking football; the ones that are going to college to play football, even business leaders around here."
"I want it to be an event, kind of like a weekend thing. Friday, it could be an event, a fundraiser, with some business people or just somebody coming, talking to some kids and then Saturday is the camp," Fluellen said. "Football-related, I would love to have [former Purple Hurricane and Auburn Tiger and current Miami Dolphin] Ronnie [Brown] because me and him are good friends. Me and him are cool.
"This time right now just wasn't good for him."
No matter how big the camp grows, Fluellen will not allow it to become about anything other than giving back to his hometown.
"I want it to be really geared toward Bartow County. I don't want it to be Atlanta [or] Marietta because that's not where I'm from. I'm from Bartow County," he said. "Bartow County loves me. I love Bartow County. That's who raised and groomed me. I don't want it to get so big to where it's just people that want to be here because of my name. I want it to be where people who know me and know the person I am want to be here and want to be involved with it."