Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward capped off NFL Honors with the biggest prize of the night. He received the 2023 Walter Payton Man of the Year award.
Heyward, a six-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time All Pro, was the Steelers’ Man of the Year nominee for a sixth time overall and for a third consecutive season.
The award is the league’s highest honor, acknowledging a player for his outstanding community service off the field as well as his outstanding play on it. The award’s history dates to the 1970 merger when Johnny Unitas became the league’s first Man of the Year.
The award was renamed in 1999 to honor Payton.
Heyward, who has spent his entire 13-year career in Pittsburgh, is the first Steelers player to win the award since Jerome Bettis in 2001. Franco Harris (1976), Joe Greene (1979) and Lynn Swann (1981) are the franchise’s other players to win NFL Man of the Year.
Each of the 32 nominees — one from each team — were awarded a $40,000 donation for the charity of their choice, with Heyward receiving a $250,000 donation in his name as the Man of the Year.
Heyward founded his foundation, The Heyward House, in 2015 with focuses on combatting childhood hunter, supporting students and teachers, aiding childhood literacy and fighting cancer.
In memory of his father, former NFL running back Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, who died of brain cancer, Cameron Heyward started a collaboration with The Southeastern Brain Tumor Foundation that led to $40,000 in Voices of Hope Scholarships being granted.
On the field, Heyward has 80.5 sacks and 647 tackles in his career.