The recipient of this season's Walter Payton Man of the Year Award presented by Nationwide will be one of three veteran players with two Super Bowl rings and four Super Bowl appearances between them.
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen are all finalists to be named the 2016 Man of the Year.
The winner will be announced during the NFL Honors on Feb. 4. Anquan Boldin, then a San Francisco 49ers wide receiver, was last year's recipient.
Fitzgerald's foundation, The Larry Fitzgerald First Down Fund, has provided grants of more than $1 million to promote reading and technology access for students K-12 and to support efforts to prevent and cure breast cancer and support breast cancer survivors. Fitzgerald also promotes vision care for children, to fit people around the world with hearing aids and to visit countries in Africa to promote economic development.
A fervent champion for causes involving children, Manning has served as the Chair of the New York March for Babies for the past seven years, helping raise over $25 million since. Manning also spearheads "Tackle Kids' Cancer," an initiative with Hackensack University Medical Center. In addition, Manning and his wife founded the Eli and Abby Manning Children's Clinics in 2007, kicking off a five-year fundraising campaign that raised close to $3 million.
For Olsen, charity and good works are personal. In 2009, after watching his mother tackle and survive breast cancer, Olsen founded Receptions for Research: The Greg Olsen Foundation, a program has distributed over $520,000 to six hospitals and foundations. In 2013, Olsen and his wife Kara founded the HEARTest Yard Fund after a routine examination of their unborn son, T.J., revealed the infant had Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). Since its inception, the fund has distributed nearly $1.25 million to support families' of babies affected by congenital heart disease.
To read their full nominations or to learn more about all 32 team nominees, visit nfl.com/manoftheyear.
