New York Jets star defensive lineman Quinnen Williams has been nominated by the team for the NFL’s annual Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.
Williams, 23, is in his third year in the NFL. In 12 games this season, the 2019 first-round draft pick has 6.0 sacks and 12 QB hits.
Off the field, Williams is the founder of the Quinnen Williams Foundation. Currently, the foundation is running their second annual ‘100 Reasons Why’ campaign. The campaign “spreads $25,000 of holiday joy amongst 100 single-parent families (handpicked by Quinnen Williams) in the Birmingham, AL area,” according to their website.
In addition to the 100 Reasons Why campaign, the foundation partners with the American Cancer Society.
Williams, who lost his mother to breast cancer, frequently visits with cancer patients at Goryeb Children’s Hospital in Morristown, N.J.
“Visiting hospital patients was an amazing thing, because when I was going through the process with my mom, a whole bunch of family members and friends came up to visit her, and they kept her in a positive attitude,” Williams said in an interview. “So I just felt like doing that with the little kids.”
The Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, which has been given since 1970, recognizes and honors a player’s off-field volunteer and charity work. Prior to 1999, the award was called simply the ‘NFL Man Of The Year Award.’ After humanitarian and all-time NFL great Walter Payton, who was the recipient of the award in 1977, passed away in 1999, the award was renamed in his honor.
Winners of the award receive a $250,000 donation in their name to a charity of their choice. The other 31 finalists receive $50,000 to charities of their choice.
The 2021 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year will be announced during NFL Honors, a primetime awards special to air the Thursday before Super Bowl LVI.
