Really cool story from one of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ best people, Arthur Moats.
If you’ve hung around on Twitter today, you’ve probably seen the hashtag, #MoatsWPMOYChallenge. It’s a charity challenge connecting fans to each NFL player up for the Walter Payton Man Of The Year Award. For the Steelers, their representative is Moats, someone more active in the community than maybe anyone in the league.
The winner of the challenge will get $25,000 to donate to a charity of his choosing. Moats is currently in the lead with over 11,200 votes, nearly 2000 votes ahead of Carolina Panthers’ tight end Greg Olsen.
Voting is simple – just tweet out the hashtag, #MoatsWPMOYChallenge. The contest runs through January 8th while the Walter Payton Award will be announced on February 4th, the night before the Super Bowl. The winner of that award gets a $500,000 donation to the charity of his choice, given in his name.
Steelers.com recently ran an interview with him after being nominate for the award.
“It’s a huge honor…I understand the community outreach. Just to be able to do it here and have that same type of impact definitely feels good.”
Moats has worked several community events, including working with the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Pittsburgh. Outside of the city, he’s given back to his alma mater. Last year, he donated $300,000 to James Madison, one of the largest donations the university had ever received.
Anquan Boldin was selected as last year’s award winner. Four Steelers have won the award: Franco Harris in 1976, Joe Greene in 1979, Lynn Swann in 1981, and Jerome Bettis in 2001.
