Winner Announced at NFL Honors on Thursday, Feb. 6
Allen Park, Mich. – Dec. 5, 2024 – The Detroit Lions have announced that QB Jared Goff has been selected as the team’s nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award presented by Nationwide. The Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award is the league’s most prestigious honor, recognizing players who excel on-the-field and demonstrate a steadfast commitment to creating a positive impact beyond the game.
“Once again, I am humbled to receive this nomination. My work off the field is deeply connected to my desire and responsibility to give back to my communities. To be a source of inspiration with the influence that I have is something I take seriously. Myself, my platform, and our partners remain committed to exemplifying the great values this recognition and award represents.”
In addition to his record-breaking success at quarterback for the Lions, Goff spends much of his time giving back to the community, specifically using his official JG16 brand as an avenue to provide funds and resources to those in need. This year marks Goff’s second time being recognized by the Lions as their Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee, with his first team nomination in 2022.
Particularly passionate about education, Goff began partnering in 2022 with Detroit’s Give Merit FATE program, a cohort-based program for Detroit youth that emphasizes the value of education and its role in achieving long-term career and personal goals through real-life business projects. Each year, Goff connects with select local students from the program and collaborates with them on the designs of the JG16 clothing line, in which the student designers subsequently receive scholarships from the sales of the apparel, with Goff matching 100% of every sale. In addition to being able to provide scholarships for all the student designers, Goff donates any surplus of the sales to the overall FATE scholarship fund, providing college funds to numerous other Detroit students in the program. He also used his Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nomination in 2022 to donate an additional $85,000 to the FATE scholarship Fund, alongside another $25,000 at the end of the 2022 season following his participation in the RX3 charitable flag football game.
In the effort of providing more educational opportunities for local students, Goff also partnered with the Detroit Lions Foundation and Detroit Lions Academy (DLA) – a school in the Detroit Public Schools Community District – to fund the building of a STEAM lab and learning center in 2022, with the goal to inspire literacy and hard work in the classroom.
Goff also has an interest in fighting national food insecurity, partnering with Lineage Foundation for Good – an organization that works to fight food insecurity and reduce food waste – to donate 1,000 meals for every one of his road game touchdowns to each host city’s local food banks and pantries. In 2023, between Goff’s touchdowns and additional ad hoc donations, this partnership provided 150,000 meals across the United States, and Goff aims to surpass last year’s donations during the second year of this partnership.
Goff’s involvement in the Detroit community follows a large level of support from him in the Los Angeles community, in which he supported those in need through the COVID-19 pandemic, donating one million meals to a local foodbank and 20,000 masks to students and families. Through his JG16 brand, he also partnered with the Inglewood Unified School District in 2020 to donate 1,000 backpacks to the students as well as fund a library and STEAM lab learning center at one of their schools.
Each nominee will receive up to $55,000 and the award winner will receive up to a $265,000 donation to their charity of choice. All donations are made possible by the NFL Foundation and Nationwide Foundation.
All 32 nominees will be recognized for their achievements during the week leading up to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. The winner of the 2024 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award will be announced during NFL Honors, a primetime awards special to air nationally on FOX and the NFL Network on Thursday, Feb. 6.
Fans are once again encouraged to participate in Nationwide’s annual Charity Challenge, a social media and online contest that allows fans to show support for their favorite Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee. Fans can vote on X/Twitter by posting #WPMOYChallenge along with the last name/X handle of their chosen nominee or by voting directly on NFL.com/ManOfTheYear. The nominee who receives the most collective hashtag mentions and online votes will win an additional $35,000 donation from Nationwide to the charity of their choice, with the runner-up receiving $10,000 and the third-place winner receiving $5,000. Charity Challenge voting takes place from Thursday, Dec. 5 to Sunday, Jan. 6.
Beginning Week 14 and continuing through the end of the season, each of this year’s nominees, including Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff, will wear a special Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year helmet decal in recognition of their accomplishments on and off the field.
For more information about the award, please visit NFL.com/ManOfTheYear.
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