I just attended the press conference for the Walter Payton Man of the Year finalists. This is finally an event that has a Chiefs flavor to it.
The finalists are Mike Furrey of the Cleveland Browns, London Fletcher of the Washington Redskins and of course Kansas City's own Brian Waters.
A few members of the Chiefs brass were in attendance including Clark Hunt and Denny Thum. You could tell they were proud to have Mr. Waters represented once again.
In fact, if Waters walks away with the award on Sunday, it will be a record fifth Chief to receive the award. Behind Super Bowls, this is about as good as it gets for NFL players.
"I think clearly from the start, Lamar [Hunt] made sure that was important," Waters said this morning. "All those great players represent themselves and the league well and to be part of that lineage is an honor," he said.
He also said he was "truly blessed to be here today" and that it was an honor in itself just to be nominated.
"I take pride in being a blessing to others," he said.
Always deflecting credit, Waters said his unique story of undrafted to World League to NFL is "one of 2,000 stories" out there.
Waters has literally dozens of benefactors to his charitable endeavors including his foundation, Brian Waters 54 Foundation, that benefits children and the underprivileged in Kansas City and his hometown in Texas.
Congratulations to Mr. Waters for such a huge honor. As someone who lives in the Kansas City community, I take a lot of pride in things like this.