Rams offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth received the Walter Payton Man of the Year award on Thursday night, and in accepting the honor, he told a story that illustrated the way a player can make a difference off the field.
The story was about this season’s Rams-Lions game, in which Lions rookie Derrick Barnes approached Whitworth on the field to remind him of how big a difference he had made in Barnes’ life years ago. The 40-year-old Whitworth played in Cincinnati early in his career, and he mentored Barnes, who grew up in the area.
“One experience brought it all together for me this year, and it happened to me on a football field,” Whitworth said in his acceptance speech. “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 a coach’s son or player’s son is playing against me? He stopped that. He said, ‘Hey man, you’re not going to 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. . . . You know what, the main thing I wanted to say, Whit, I made it. I made it to the NFL, Big Whit.’”
Whitworth called on all NFL players to examine how they can make a difference in the lives of kids in their communities.
“I was floored for how special that was,” Whitworth said. “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 going to present itself. The key is to always be available when it does.”
