TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have named defensive end William Gholston as their nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.
Widely considered the league's most prestigious honor, the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award recognizes outstanding community service and excellence on the field.
The Bucs commended Gholston, the second-longest tenured player on the roster, for the work he has done in Tampa and his hometown of Detriot since he was drafted in 2013.
“To be nominated as the Walter Payton Man of the Year means the world to me,” Gholston said in a news release. “This award is bigger than football, so I’m honored to be in the same conversation as other great players around the league making a difference in their communities.”
According to the team, the defensive lineman grew up facing food insecurity and shares the story of his upbringing to uplift those struggling in similar situations.
Gholston's story also motivates his work to feed families throughout the community.
He not only works with Feeding Tampa Bay every year to distribute hundreds of Thanksgiving meals, he periodically volunteers with the Bucs' D-Line Mobile Food Pantry, which provides healthy groceries twice a month for 250 families in East Tampa.
Gholston is also passionate about funding cancer research after losing his dad to lung cancer, his uncle to prostate cancer, and watching his mother battle breast cancer several times. In 2021 he donated $225,000 to Moffitt Cancer Center’s George Edgecomb Society.
On top of his personal community service work, the defensive end is involved with several of the team's projects and has personally sponsored more than 700 people to attend Buccaneers home games, complete with meal vouchers and team merchandise.
The Buccaneers say Gholston has been a mainstay of the defensive line for the past 10 seasons, having played a part in the team's Super Bowl LV victory. He'll be sporting a special helmet decal through the end of the season in recognition of his accomplishments.
Each of the 32 nominees throughout the NFL will receive $40,000 toward a charity of their choice from the NFL Foundation and Nationwide. If Gholston goes on to win the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award, he'll receive a $250,000 donation to charity.
To learn how to support Gholston for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award, you can visit the league's website.
