Image from: NFL
JJ Watt was just named the Walter Payton Man of the Year. Tonight, he was the first Texans player ever to receive the award since the franchise was created in 2002. As we all know, JJ Watt has been a huge figure in the Texans organization to not just the players, but the community around him. He helped raise over 37 million for victims of Hurricane Harvey. Many believed Watt had the best chance to win after this fundraiser was done since he did something so epic, and wide scale. The city of Houston loves JJ, and just recently got all the donations sorted through and many rebuilding projects and other ideas have been going on for the past few weeks.
Every team nominates one player to do it, and the Texans had an easy choice. The award recognizes the player's contributions not only on the field but off of it as well. This is almost like a community service award that was announced a few days ago. It certainly is one of the bigger non-MVP/Player of the year awards, so it is a big deal for JJ.
According to the NFL, “$500,000 will be donated in the name of the 2017 winner. $250,000 will be donated to the winner's charity of choice and $250,000 will be donated in his name to expand Character Playbook across the country. The two other finalists will each receive a $100,000 donation to their charity of choice and a $100,000 donation in their names to expand Character Playbook. All other 29 nominees will receive a $50,000 donation to their charity of choice and an additional $50,000 donation in their names to expand Character Playbook. All donations are courtesy of the NFL Foundation, Nationwide and United Way Worldwide.”. This is great for JJ as his charity will be the recipient of these donations.
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