Vikings’ Madieu Williams wins Walter Payton Man of the Year award
The Walter Payton Man of the Year award is given every year by the National Football League (NFL) to a player that exhibits excellence on the field but more importantly charity and volunteer work in the community.
Before Walter Payton, running back for the Chicago Bears, died in 1999, the award was known as the NFL Man of the Year. This year, the winner of the award is Madieu Williams, safety for the Minnesota Vikings.
Williams was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2004 NFL Draft in the second round, overall pick number 56. He played in all 16 games of his rookie season, recording three interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, two sacks, 11 blocked
passes and 103 tackles.
In his second season, he missed twelve games due to injury. However, in the four that he played in, he racked up an interception and 23 tackles. In his third season in 2006, he again played in all 16 games and had 90 tackles, three interceptions, two forced
fumbles and 13 pass deflections.
In 2007, he played in 13 games, missing three due to injury, and had two interceptions, two recovered fumbles, one forced fumble, two sacks, seven deflected passes and 74 tackles. In the first game of the 2007 season, he had 10 tackles.
However, this is just background information so you can see that Williams is indeed an excellent player. But what about his off the field contributions?
He started the Madieu Williams Foundation in 2005 to help youths focus on education, fitness, nutrition, wellness and health. He reaches out to children and helps them realize the importance of a healthy lifestyle from an early age.
He was honoured by Franco Harris, who is the owner of R Super Foods. Harris, a Hall of Famer, who was fullback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks, owns the company, which focuses on producing nutritional food for schoolchildren.
Williams was featured on R Super Foods’ boxes of Super donuts and Super buns, to honour his efforts in nutrition and health. He was called the Cincinnati Super MVP by R Super Foods.
In 2009, Williams donated $2 million to create the Madieu Williams Center for Global Heath Initiatives at the University of Maryland.
The award was announced just before Super Bowl XLV, although Williams was not in attendance. He is currently visiting troops in Iraq and accepted his award via video conference.
"It is a tremendous honour to win this award named after Walter Payton, one of the greatest men to ever play in the National Football League", Williams said. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there to accept the award, but it's an even greater honor to be here in
Iraq with Task Force Iron Horse on a goodwill tour watching the Super Bowl with our troops."
In the video, Williams was wearing a 4th Infantry Division jersey and stood with many other soldiers. He has been helping the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Minnesota and also the United Way and Havast Prep/Seed Academy.
Leslie Frazier, head coach for the Vikings, said: "It is a tremendous honour that Madieu has been named the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year. It is quite an accomplishment and one that is well deserved. Madieu is a person that cares about people. He is
not your prototypical pro athlete by any means".
Williams has been in the NFL for seven years and graduated from the University of Maryland.
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