By Vince Agnew, Player Engagement Insider
With the Christmas season approaching, Tennessee Titans linebacker Wesley Woodyard is continuing to display the outstanding values that have made him respected in the community and around the NFL.
Being nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, the NFL’s most prestigious off-the-field honor, speaks to a tremendous amount of character and commitment that a man in the league must display in every facet of life. Woodyard has been nominated three times throughout his nine-year career.
“That is more important than any of the football when you can have a chance to work and change the community,” he explained. “I’m a selfless guy. I want to put my community first.”
“To see my teammates recognize that hard work, it’s really just a huge blessing to be honored in the same breath as Walter Payton,” Woodyard said.
For the LaGrange, Georgia native, being active in communities is not something that happens at sporadic charity events during the course of a career. For him, it is truly who he is and who he was groomed to be from an early age.
He credits his selfless qualities to a combination of life experiences and family upbringing.
“My mom was very selfless,” he said. “My brother was a big influence on me and I even did some charity work as a little kid too.”
Woodyard recalled the first event that he ever attended at a homeless shelter in Atlanta, Georgia—something that he believes put things into perspective.
“Just to be able to see that as a young kid I think that saved my life at a young age,” he said.
Now with the holiday season rapidly approaching, the veteran linebacker is hoping to have a life-changing impact on a new generation of children. While he did not don a big white beard and a red jump suit, he did deliver in a big way.
Many think of Christmas and envision trees dressed in decorative lights surrounded by a mound of presents. However thousands of children in unfavorable situations are never able to wake up on Christmas Day and experience that euphoria.
Woodyard kicked off this seventh annual holiday toy drive on Monday, November 28 in Aurora, Colorado to make sure that children in multiple communities would have gifts to open on December 25th. He was joined by some of his former Broncos teammates, linebacker Brandon Marshall, running back Juwan Thompson and cornerback Chris Harris, Jr.
The final count is not in yet but Woodyard estimates that they raised over 500 toys and $3,500 from the silent auction for children with Vickers Boys and Girls Club, Give Denver, Tennyson Center, Denver Children’s Hospital and Hallett Academy.
He does all of this through his 16 Ways Foundation which works to put on events at various locations around the country, including three more toy drives in the planning stages.
Woodyard received his degree in social work from the University of Kentucky and believes the reason that he went that route was to be able to have initiatives like his foundation and do the work that he is involved with now.
“I just try to touch on every aspect that I can to help in that field,” he said. “So that’s working with self esteem with the kids because there is an emotional need for at-risk youth. I also have a literacy program in Lexington, Kentucky. I just try to change every aspect that I can get my hands on.”
Woodyard embodies what it means to live a life of service and exudes a genuine passion for all that he is doing in the community. Taking time away from his team and family to spread good cheer during the holiday season, there is no wonder why he has been a repeat candidate for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.