Every year all 32 NFL teams have one player from their organization that is nominated for the Walter Payton Man Of The Year award. This year’s representative for the Bucs is star safety Antoine Winfield Jr.

The Walter Payton Man Of The Year Award is considered one of the most prestigious honors in the NFL. It honors the winner for their outstanding community service activities off the field, as well as excellence on the field.

This is the first nomination for Winfield as he joins Mike Evans (2019-2021) and Will Gholston (2022) as Bucs on the current roster that have been nominated for the award.

Bucs FS Antoine Winfield Jr. and Colts RB Jonathan Taylor – Photo by: USA Today

Winfield has participated in a number of community efforts since coming to Tampa Bay. His particular focus has been on helping local foster children as he would like to give them the same opportunities and experiences that other children are afforded.

He has teamed up with two non profit organizations – Heart Gallery of Tampa and A Kid’s Place Tampa Bay to set up events. You can check out these organizations here and here.

Some of the events that Winfield has been involved with include taking 55 children trick or treating through a neighborhood for Halloween. Another, along with his fiancé Teesa, include buying makeup for a group of young women and arranging a spa day along with an outing at a trampoline place.

Since coming to Tampa Bay in 2020, Winfield has been part of the Bucs’ youth leadership program. He joined their social justice board last season and helped double the size of the leadership program, which helped fund more money to Habitat for Humanity in Hillsborough. In turn, they were able to fund two homes in the area.

Bucs’ Safety Winfield Comments On Nomination 

“It means everything to me to be nominated for Walter Payton Man of the Year,” Winfield told Buccaneers.com. “Every year, the organization has the opportunity to nominate an individual and this was a goal that I set for myself. It’s great to not only be nominated, but to have the platform of this great award to now shed light on some of the most pressing issues in our community.”

Bucs FS Antoine Winfield Jr. – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Winfield will get to wear the Walter Payton Man Of The Year decal on his helmet for the rest of the season along with the 31 other nominees. Every nominee gets up to $55,000 to use in a donation with the winner receiving a $250,000 to donate to a charity of their choosing.

All 32 nominees will be highlighted and recognized for their important work during the week leading up to Super Bowl LVIII. The 2023 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year winner will be announced during NFL Honors, a primetime awards special to air nationally on CBS on Thursday, Feb. 8.

Make sure to get your votes in for Winfield. Fans can vote for Winfield Jr. on X by posting #WPMOYChallenge Winfield Jr. or #WPMOYChallenge @AntoineWJr11 to support A Kid’s Place Tampa Bay or by voting directly on NFL.com/ManOfTheYear.

Winfield has been doing great things on the field this season and even better when it comes to his impact off of it.