The NFL will celebrate greatness on and off the field and announce the winner of the Walton Payton Man of the Year Award.

Out of 32 nominees, one NFL player was awarded the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Learn which football star took home the award in 2025 ahead of Super Bowl LIX.

NEW ORLEANS – The NFL announced this evening that Jacksonville Jaguars DE Arik Armstead was named the 2024 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year. The award is the league's most prestigious honor, recognizing NFL players who have exhibited excellence on the field and whose passion to impact lives extends beyond the game.

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Arik Armstead was selected the Walter Payton Man of the Year. His Armstead Academic Project supports early childhood education.

Let’s define success by a new metric, not by the things that we acquire, but by the people we positively impact.”

Arik Armstead, a defensive lineman for the Jacksonville Jaguars, has been awarded the 2024 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. Armstead took home the honor on Thursday night at the NFL Honors ceremony held at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans.

Jacksonville Jaguars DL Arik Armstead was named the 2024 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year. An exclusive award, given only to the most deserving.

Armstead, who openly discusses how his difficulty reading as a child made him self-conscious, routinely visits schools and reads to children as part of his mission to ensure young students of all socio-economic backgrounds have access to adequate educational resources.