It was once said of Walter Payton that you couldn’t find him in the locker room after a win and he’d had a great game, but he was always front and center after a bad day.
Matt Slauson never blocked for Payton but he has carried on some of Payton’s legacy, accommodating the sometimes endless questions regardless of situation. That attitude has earned Slauson the third annual “Good Guy Award” from the Chicago chapter of the Pro Football Writers Association of America.
Slauson was accorded the same honor by the New York media in 2011 while a member of the New York Jets.
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“I feel like you guys have a job to do,” Slauson said on Thursday after the award was announced by Dan Pompei, first vice president of the PFWA. “I have a job to do. And part of the reason I have a job is because of the fans. You [media] are the highway to the fans so we can kind of communicate to them and give them a look into what we do every day.
“In times like this when things aren’t going great, I like to kind of use that as an opportunity to reassure the fans that we’re working our tails off. And the best way for us to do that is through you guys.”
Previous winners of the award were quarterback Josh McCown for 2013 and safety Ryan Mundy last season. Quarterback Jay Cutler began stumping for votes in 2016.
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“I was holding out for the nice guy award but I heard Slauson got it,” Cutler said. “You [media] obviously don’t know ‘Slaus’ that well.”