GREEN BAY – Green Bay Packers linebacker Blake Martinez has been named the team’s nominee for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
The award recognizes a player for his excellence on and off the field and is among the league’s most prestigious awards.
Each of the league’s 32 nominees were announced Dec. 12.
Each player will receive a donation of up to $50,000 in his name to his charity of choice.
The winner of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award will receive a $250,000 donation to the charity of his choice.
All 32 team winners will be highlighted as finalists and recognized leading up to Super Bowl LIV.
The 2019 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year will be announced during NFL Honors, a two-hour primetime award special to air nationally Feb. 1, the eve of Super Bowl LIV, on FOX.
As a nominee, Martinez will wear a Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year helmet decal through the end of the season.
For the fifth year, each Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee will also take part in the Charity Challenge, a social media challenge that encourages fans to post on Twitter using a unique hashtag for each player.
The player hashtag that generates the most mentions between Dec. 12 and Jan. 12 will win an additional $25,000 donation to the charity of his choice.
Fans can support Martinez by tweeting with the hashtag #WPMOYChallenge + Martinez to help him earn the donation.
In his fourth season in the NFL, Martinez was selected as the Packers’ nominee to honor the continual investment of his time and talents outside of football in the community, both in Green Bay and back home in Tucson, Arizona.
In Green Bay, he has been involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Wisconsin, Make-A-Wish Wisconsin and the Salvation Army.
He was a part of the Packers 13th Annual Tailgate Tour that helped raise money for local nonprofit organizations throughout southern Wisconsin, eastern Iowa and the Milwaukee area.
He has participated in the Packers Give Back Celebrity Bowling Event the past three years to help raise money for NWTC and CASA.
Martinez also recently visited cadets at the Challenge Academy in Fort McCoy and helped with a Play60 football camp at nearby Syble Hopp School.
Over the past few years, Martinez has been involved in many efforts that raise awareness for childhood cancer, including the Penny Wars program by G9 (Gold in September).
He donates to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for every 100 followers he gets on twitch.tv/packernation50, as well as 100 percent of the money he receives from subscriptions and ads.
In 2018 and 2019, Martinez also served as the Packers vs. Cancer campaign spokesperson to help raise awareness of all cancers and raising funds for research and cancer care.
More information about the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award can be found at nfl.com/manoftheyear.