On Saturday night during the NFL Honors ceremony, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson finally took home some hardware in the form of the Walter Payton Man of the Year award. Wilson has yet another feather to put in the cap of his illustrious career, and what a feather it is.
Although many Seahawks fans surely hoped Wilson would finally get some love when it came to the Most Valuable Player award, he actually netted a much more prestigious honor.
The MVP highlights triumph on the football field. The Walter Payton Man of the Year award highlights triumph for humanity.
Driven by his devout Christian faith, Russell Wilson has been known as one of the most charitable players in the league. Ever since he was a rookie, Wilson would make weekly trips every Tuesday during the season to Seattle Children’s Hospital. But in 2020, Wilson outdid even himself.
This past year has been a monumentally difficult one for everybody. As the world still continues to grapple with a deadly virus, and as America still cries out for social and racial justice, Wilson stepped up to the plate to do his part for both issues.
One of the major challenges to come up during the COVID-19 pandemic has been food insecurity. Wilson and his wife Ciara donated $1 million of their own wealth to Feeding America, which is a network of hundreds of food banks across the county, to provide over a million meals.
With Feeding America, Wilson also partnered with an aviation company known as Wheels Up to create the Meals Up program to help deliver food all over the United States.
Wilson also partnered with the I AM A VOTER to encourage people to register to vote and participate in the 2020 election. He and Ciara also purchased billboard add space across the country with the message “Black Lives Matter, Love Russell and Ciara.”
Wilson and Ciara, with their Why Not You Foundation, announced they will be launching Why Not You Academy – a tuition-free, public school which will open its doors in Des Moines, WA in the fall of 2021.
The reality of the situation is Wilson’s philanthropy is quite extensive, and more detail can be found on the Seattle Seahawks’ official Twitter account.
Wilson joins Steve Largent (1988) as the only Seahawks to receive the Walter Payton Man of the Year award.
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