Vikings Nominate Eric Kendricks for Walter Payton Man of the Year Award

The Minnesota Vikings have made Eric Kendricks their nominee for the Walter Payton Man of The Year award from the NFL.

The Vikings honored Kendricks as their 2020 Community Man of the Year, and put him up for the league's highest off the field honor, the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Kendricks is a key member of the Vikings Social Justice Committee and has done a lot of work with a variety of Twin Cities organizations.

Kendricks has previously worked with Every Meal/Sheridan Story, an organization that helps provide meals to kids, and after the death of George Floyd, Kendricks took a lead role in the Vikings Social Justice Committee and started working with All Square, an organization that helps provide work for former prison inmates.

Back in September Kendricks delivered a $250,000 check to All Square as part of the Vikings and Wilf family's $5 million overall commitment to social justice causes, and $1 million of that money will be directly awarded by the Vikings Social Justice Committee.

During that check presentation Kendricks was notified that he was the recipient of the Vikings Community Man of the Year award and would be nominated for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. After getting the news and a customized #54 jersey that read WPMOY on the back, Kendricks said, "That's what's up! Hell, yeah."

You can read more about the work that Kendricks has done, and it's a lot, here on the Vikings' official announcement about the nomination. Kyle Rudolph has gotten the nomination the 3 previous years for his work with the U of M Children's Hospital.