PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It still hasn’t really sunk in for Cam Heyward yet. The Steelers captain said his wife told him this morning ‘it really did happen last night’. Heyward said he was emotional this morning talking to his kids about winning the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award Thursday night in Las Vegas.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Heyward said Friday. “I was not ready for the entire night. I told (people) I was not winning this award. I tried to temper expectations. I didn’t want to let people down.”
It would be one of the rare times in his life he would have let anyone down. Heyward does so much in the community he even devoted a week during the season where he attended and led several charity events per day.
“We all need to understand to be a great player is just not enough,” Heyward said. “The community needs us. When I first got here, I had guys like Brett (Keisel), Aaron (Smith) showed me how to act. Having that opportunity, I want to provide my teammates with that. They are not going to follow the same lane as what I may do, but they need to provide opportunities to give back.”
Heyward said even having Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin at the awards did not really tip him off. Tomlin is not one to populate award shows. He said he got some texts right before Prince Harry announced the winner, but said until he only knew for sure when he saw the video start playing that showed some of his work.
“It’s unbelievable,” Heyward said. “You look at guys like Joe Greene, Lynn Swann, Jerome Bettis, Franco. I feel honored to be among that group. I almost don’t feel worthy of it because those guys did so much in the community to uphold the standard. It’s unbelievable to be a part of it.”
Greene called during the conference call to congratulate Heyward, at first, he didn’t know who Greene was and answered the congratulations as if it was just a media member. His Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel also offered congrats. The one person who couldn’t be there, Heyward thought somehow was.
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“My dad was always a big fan of Walter Payton,” Heyward said. “He would have had a good time last night and I think he did. I think he would be excited about the award, but know we got more work to do.”
That was a theme of the conversation on Friday. He wants to continue his father’s legacy, he called it cathartic to give back. Heyward will use some of the money from the award to help communities, but also wants to attempt to give more to schools.
“The work continues,” Heyward said. “I don’t shy away from it. There are a lot of people that need our help, I want to be doing that.”
“It was a special night, but we understand we got more work to do. That was just the cherry on top.”