Exclusive: A Republic investigation into how pro athletes engage in philanthropy showed a divide between the NFL’s and NFLPA’s promotion and celebration of their awards and their efforts to educate players on nonprofit best practices and pitfalls.
Baltimore Ravens defensive end Calais Campbell nearly called it a career before the 2020 NFL season, played in empty stadiums and under heavy restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2022 Payton award winner will be announced at the NFL Honors awards show on Thursday night at Symphony Hall in Phoenix. The event is hosted by Kelly Clarkson and will broadcast live on NBC, NFL Network and Peacock. But a six-month investigation by The Republic into how pro athletes engage in philanthropy, which included dozens of interviews and the review of thousands of pages of federal tax returns and state records of nonprofit organizations founded by Payton award winners, showed a significant divide between the NFL’s and NFLPA’s considerable promotion and celebration of their awards for community service and philanthropy and their efforts to educate players on nonprofit best practices and pitfalls.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell presents the Walter Payton Man of the Year award to Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner before the NFL Super Bowl XLIII football game on Feb. 1, 2009, in Tampa, Fla. Payton's widow, Connie, looks on.The NFL Honors award show debuted in February 2012 in Indianapolis, where it was hosted by Alec Baldwin and broadcast live on NBC.
“What’s funny about winning Walter Payton Man of the Year is I’ve criticized it for five years,” Andrew Whitworth, the 2021 recipient, said. “Not necessarily the actual award, but the process of going on Twitter and Instagram and promoting yourself, like ‘hashtag me to win Walter Payton Man of the Year.’ Things like that irk me a little bit because that’s not the idea of being Walter Payton Man of the Year to me.
The NFL’s recognition conveys fundraising power and respect and encourages players, who are ultra-competitive but not often nonprofit experts, to ramp up their community service and philanthropy to chase the honor for themselves. The NFL compiles the submitted information and distributes it to a panel that chooses three finalists and the winner.
“The NFL Foundation has an outside reviewer carefully vet each application and tier them based on the fiscal health of the organization, programmatic impact, strength of the application itself, etc.,” White wrote in an email to The Republic. “The grant recipients are provided with the reviewer’s notes so they can see flagged strengths and weaknesses from their submitted applications.”
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