Walter Payton Man of the Year - Andrew Whitworth

[MJAlltheWay24]

It was mentioned in the SuperBowl Prediction thread, but especially with all the time he spent in Cincinnati, I figured it warranted its own thread.

Congrats to Adam Whitworth on winning one of the more prestigious and meaningful NFL awards last night.

If you have five minutes, its worth watching his speech:

 

[theguru]

I really enjoyed this part of the speech (credit Cincinnati.com in this case) about 2016 All BluegrassPreps.com player Derrick Barnes:

"One experience brought it all together for me - this year - and it happened to me on a football field. In our game against the Detroit Lions, I had a young player from the Lions run up to me as soon as the final horn went off. And I saw him sprinting over, and I didn't know what was going on - like we'd known each other forever. I couldn't place him. It made me so nervous. Had I actually played long enough that like a coach's son or player's son is playing against me? He stopped that. He said, 'Hey man, you're not gonna remember me. I'm Derrick Barnes. You spent time with me when you were a young player in Cincinnati at the Boys & Girls Club. And it meant the world to me. You used to sit with me and talk to me about life. And I was just a little kid. I want you to know how much it meant to me.' I said, 'Man.' He goes, 'You know what, the main thing I wanted to say, Whit, I made it. I made it to the NFL, Big Whit.' Wow! I was floored for how special that was. ... I hope you don't see that video and think there's anything special about me. But I hope that you see it and you think this: On that Tuesday off day - when every guy sitting in this room that's played knows 'I'd rather be at home' - I made an investment in him. And I didn't even know it. I think that's a great lesson for all of us. None of us know when the moment is gonna present itself. The key is to always be available when it does."

 

[MJAlltheWay24]

@theguruthat part of the speech gave me chills.  Really touching.  That's awesome the player was on the All BGP team.

[hrcarrier]

Very happy for Whit getting this and going out as a Super Bowl winner. His acceptance speech was awesome!