Packers' Brad Jones nominated for NFL's Walter Payton award

GREEN BAY (WITI) -- Packers linebacker Brad Jones has been nominated by the Packers for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. The award is the greatest distinction an NFL player can achieve for community service.

Jones, who just completed his fifth season in the NFL and with the Packers, heavily invests his time in community improvement efforts in Green Bay and other Wisconsin communities. He has given a great amount of support to the Brown County Human Services Department Pals Program, Families of Children with Cancer, the Boys and Girls Club of the Fox Valley and the Sister Bay Lions Club.

He was also involved with the WPS Health Insurance Pro vs. G.I. Joe program, in which NFL players play Call of Duty against United States soldiers overseas; the Campbell’s Chunky Soup Click for Cans competition, which donated food to Wisconsin food pantries; the Mike and Jessica McCarthy Golf Invitational, which donates proceeds to the American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison; Packers’ Draft Day parties; and the Green Bay Packers Golf Invitational.

In 2013, Jones also received the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award.

Each player nominated for the award (one player from each team) may choose a nonprofit to receive a $1,000 donation in his name. Jones has selected the East Lansing chapter of Gateway Community Services (Kevin J. Moody Home) to receive the contribution. Gateway Community Services is a private nonprofit organization that has been serving runaway, homeless and struggling youth and their families in Michigan’s Ingram, Eaton and Clinton counties since 1970. Jones grew up in East Lansing, where the Kevin J. Moody Home is located.

The Kevin J. Moody Home serves as a shelter to youth ages 12 to 21, and provides a place for struggling teens to receive essential services through the organization’s self-sufficiency programs.

The Walter Payton Man of the Year Award is given by the NFL and is administered by the NFL Foundation. It is unique among NFL honors because it is the only award that recognizes current NFL players for outstanding community service activities as well as excellence on the field.

Established in 1970, the award was renamed in 1999 after the late Chicago Bears’ running back Walter Payton, who represented the very best of the NFL as an athlete on the field and as a role-model off the field.