Personal causes strike chord with NFL Man of Year nominees
When Carolina tight end Greg Olsen and Kansas City safety Eric Berry had life-changing experiences away from football, the logical next step was finding ways to help the causes that helped them.
Finalists will be selected in January, and the winner will be named the night before the Super Bowl at the "NFL Honors" show.
Olsen's cause is to provide resources to improve the survival rate between surgeries for infants with a heart condition similar to the one his son T.J. had.
Berry has added cancer care to his list of priorities after he was diagnosed with lymphoma and had to step away from the game late in the 2014 season.
Both are among the 32 nominees for the 2015 Payton award, which was renamed for the late Chicago Bears running back in 1999, the same year the 1977 Man of the Year winner died of a rare liver disease and bile duct cancer.
"Everything under the sun that these babies tend to struggle in, we would provide some of expert in their field to be in your home to help you take care of it," Olsen said.
Olsen created a program with a children's hospital in Charlotte called "The Heartest Yard."
Berry, who already had a program to help impoverished people in Uganda, spent more time in hospitals with cancer patients.
"Me going through that situation, I was able to relate a lot more to people and being able to talk to kids and just let them know what I was going through," Berry said.
Carolina linebacker Thomas Davis, the 2014 Payton winner, founded a nonprofit that provides free programs to underprivileged children and their families.
The NFL has dealt with lots of negative coverage about players over the past two years, including high-profile domestic violence cases and substance abuse issues.
The man of the year program gives the league a chance to showcase players who have worked to help their communities.
The Buccaneers' 2015 nominee focuses
