Zaire Franklin, a 2014 graduate of La Salle College High School in Wyndmoor, has been nominated for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
The Indianapolis Colts team captain and the league leader in tackles this season founded Shelice’s Angels (named after his late mother, Shelice) in 2019. Through the foundation, “Franklin has hosted workshops, seminars and trips designed to arm young women with the tools, confidence and role models they need to succeed as professionals,” the Colts said.
“The genesis of it at its heart is really just me giving back to young women who are in situations that I was in,” Franklin said. “I feel like so many times as athletes, we want to do football camps. When I pull up to a middle school, I’m talking to the young guys — they’re like, ‘oh, who’s the best running back you played,’ it’s always stuff like that. And I love that — that’s the stuff that motivates me, keeps me going.
“But I feel like so many times, the young women are the ones that are overlooked in those communities.”
From the Colts’ announcement:
The Walter Payton Man of the Year Award is the most prestigious honor an NFL player can receive. The recipient of the 2023 NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year Award will be announced during the annual NFL Honors show prior to Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 8, 2024. Each Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee will receive up to $55,000, and the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year winner will receive a $250,000 donation to the charity of his choice.
La Salle College High School said in a Facebook post:
This loyal son of La Salle College High School is living the mission as a Man of Service and Justice here in the Philadelphia area as well as in his new community in Indianapolis.
“I want that to be first and foremost — yes, he was a great player, yes he was a great leader. But also he affected every community in which he was in in a positive manner,” Franklin said. “And he left it better how he found it.”
For more details about Franklin and his nomination, you can read the Colts’ press release here.
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Image: Indianapolis Colts