Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Corey Peters is injured and done for the season but his work in the community has not gone unnoticed. The team announced he was named as the team’s choice for the Walter Payton Man of the Year for 2020.
Each of the 32 franchises selects a player for the team award and is a finalist for the league award, which is the highest off-field honor a player can earn.
It is the second time Peters has been given the team award. He was named the Walter Payton Man of the year for the Atlanta Falcons in 2011.
As the recipient of the team award this year, he receives a $40,000 donation in his name to the charity of his choice.
Were Peters still playing, he would be able to wear a decal on his helmet recognizing his award. The five active players in the league who have won the league award before get to wear a patch on their jersey for the rest of their careers. Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald is one of those five players.
During the week of the Super Bowl, the NFL Honors ceremony will announce the league winner for this season. The winner will receive a $250,000 donation for the charity of his choice.
Having been a team recipient now twice, Peters has a much better chance of receiving the league award.
Below is a description of his community work, as shared by the team in a press release.
In 2012, Peters established his foundation, the Peters Education Enrichment Project (PEEP), to make a difference in the communities close to him while developing life skills and empowering future leaders. Since joining the Cardinals in 2015, he has continued that commitment in Arizona by consistently volunteering at community service events in addition to his foundation work.
Peters and his foundation have been particularly impactful in Phoenix’s South Pointe School District where he launched a bi-weekly book club, providing lunch and hosting in-person discussion with high school students. The Corey Peters Playbook continued virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic with current and former teammates – including Calais Campbell, the 2019 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year – joining the book club meetings.
This past November, in partnership with Harvest Compassion Center, Peters and his foundation donated Thanksgiving turkeys to families in the South Pointe School District. In July, Peters teamed up with UnitedHealthcare and Harvest Compassion Center to distribute care packages containing toiletries, hygiene products, clothes, school supplies and food items to 150 South Pointe families in need. Consistent with his efforts to feed the less fortunate, Peters also became an ambassador for Feed the Children, a non-profit organization whose mission is to end childhood hunger.
Earlier this year, during the week of Super Bowl LIV in Miami, Peters worked with the “Kids In Need Foundation,” a non-profit organization preparing children to learn and succeed in the classroom by providing free school supplies. He helped deliver backpacks and school supplies to Fisher Elementary School in the Miami-Dade County Public School District.
Peters has also been active within the youth football community in Arizona, establishing the Corey Peters “Lineman Challenge” and hosting specialized skills camps for high school level offensive and defensive linemen. During the 2019 offseason, he participated in a Gatorade Jr. Training Camp in Gilbert for 150 special needs students, and he currently serves on a local sports panel that selects the weekly Arizona Cardinals High School Coach and Player of the Week.
Peters has led efforts among teammates to create meaningful change in areas of social justice, prison reform and the education system. In 2018, Peters was among a small group of Cardinals players to join team owner Michael Bidwill for a meeting with Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on criminal justice reform, and this year, he partnered with the NFL to encourage citizens in Arizona and his home state of Kentucky to register and vote.
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