This morning, the Kansas City Chiefs announced that TE Travis Kelce has been selected as the team's club winner for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award presented by Nationwide. The Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award is the league's most prestigious honor, recognizing players who excel on the field and demonstrate a steadfast commitment to creating a positive impact beyond the game. Kelce is joined by 31 other club winners, with a selection from each club.
"Travis Kelce has been an influential part of the Kansas City community since his arrival 13 years ago," Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said. "He is a leader in every sense of the word. Over the course of his career, Travis has rewritten the franchise record book and earned an unprecedented ten consecutive Pro Bowl selections. During that time, he has united our community and inspired our fans while making a tangible difference in the lives of others. His Eighty-Seven & Running Foundation and his work with Operation Breakthrough and the Ignition Lab have helped to shape a brighter future for the next generation throughout Chiefs Kingdom. The entire Chiefs organization and the greater Kansas City community are proud to once again have Travis as the club's selection for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award."
"To be chosen as the team's Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year is such a great honor. I have so much love for Kansas City and the Chiefs organization, and to be selected once again means everything to me," Kelce said. "The opportunity to be involved and help kids through Eighty-Seven & Running and working with Operation Breakthrough as well as Ignition Lab has been such a tremendous experience. Coming from Cleveland Heights and having a strong support system has taught me the importance of having the right people around, that show up for you and want to see you succeed. Being able to give back to Kansas City and to my hometown, places that have done so much for me, has been a dream come true, and I'll never take that for granted. Representing the team, the Hunt family, our fans, and my foundation is incredibly special and I'm very grateful."
All 32 club winners will be recognized for their achievements during the week leading up to Super Bowl LX in the Bay Area. The national winner of the 2025 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award presented by Nationwide will be announced during NFL Honors, a primetime awards special airing on Thursday, Feb. 5. The charitable beneficiary of each team's club winner will receive $40,000, and the nonprofit chosen by the overall national winner will receive $250,000. All donations are made possible by the NFL Foundation and Nationwide Foundation.
The charitable beneficiary of each team's club winner will receive $40,000, and the nonprofit chosen by the overall national winner will receive $250,000. All donations are made possible by the NFL Foundation and Nationwide Foundation.
Kelce has been an integral member of the Kansas City community since he was selected with the 63rd overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft while also cementing his legacy as one of the greatest to play at his position. Kelce founded the Eighty-Seven & Running Foundation in 2015, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization empowering disadvantaged youth in the Kansas City community by providing resources and community support to showcase their talents in the areas of education, business, athletics, STEM, and the arts. With his foundation, he has collaborated with Operation Breakthrough, an after-school educational environment providing support and extracurricular opportunities for inner-Kansas City youth. During the Chiefs My Cause My Cleats game against the Indianapolis Colts during Week 12, Kelce wore cleats customized by students from Operation Breakthrough. The cleats were also featured alongside a backpack signed by Operation Breakthrough students.
In fall of 2021, Kelce collaborated with Operation Breakthrough to open Ignition Lab. Beginning as an abandoned muffler shop in Kansas City's North Hyde Park neighborhood, Ignition Lab has supplied students with skills beyond what they may learn in the classroom.
Since then, Ignition Lab has served over 1,000 Kansas City high school students by providing a one-of-a-kind, hands-on learning experience for high school students to develop skills to pursue a career in a variety of areas including culinary arts, automotive technology, graphic design, and more. Students can also earn wages for the work they do while also receiving education through financial literacy courses, which is a requirement for students. In addition, students consistently mentor Operation Breakthrough students through the summer, with more than 25,000 hours of mentoring being completed. Students from Ignition Lab also receive the opportunity to receive industry certifications including food-safety and health, OSHA, On Shape CAD, and MIG Welding. During the 2024-25 school year, 96 industry certifications were awarded. Since its inception, students from Ignition Lab have gone on to successfully open businesses thanks to skills they have learned including a food truck, a hydroponic farm, a digital media studio, and an upcoming tech repair shop. To date, students have also completed over 400 client-connected projects in the Kansas City community.
Kelce is a three-time Super Bowl champion over his 13-year career in Kansas City, shattering nearly every tight end record. This season, Kelce has amassed 59 receptions, 719 yards, and five touchdowns. Entering Week 14 of the 2025 season, he has caught a pass in 186 consecutive games, the longest streak in franchise history and the longest active streak in the league. In the team's Week 8 win against the Washington Commanders, Kelce became the first Chiefs player to surpass 100 receiving touchdowns, including regular season and playoffs. During the Chiefs Week 11 matchup against the Denver Broncos, Kelce broke the Chiefs record for most career regular season touchdowns in history, surpassing RB Priest Holmes (83). He currently sits in third place all-time in the NFL record book in receiving yards by a tight end posting 12,870 receiving yards, behind Pro Football Hall of Famers Tony Gonzalez (15,127) and Jason Witten (13,046). Kelce is the second Chiefs player in history to surpass 12,000 combined yards, sharing the record with WR Dante Hall (12,356). On the field, Kelce has been a consistent and dominating force, amassing 1,000 receiving yards in each season from 2016-22 while being named to a Pro Bowl every season since 2015. He is a six-time AP All-Pro honoree, with four first-team selections (2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) and three second-team nods (2017, 2019, 2021). In 2020, Kelce was named by members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Selection Committee to the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 2010s.
Fans are once again encouraged to participate in Nationwide's annual Charity Challenge, a social media and online contest that allows fans to show support for their favorite Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year club winner. Fans can vote on X/Twitter by posting #WPMOYChallenge along with the last name/X handle of their chosen club winner or by voting directly on NFL.com/ManOfTheYear. The club winner who receives the most collective hashtag mentions and online votes will win an additional $35,000 donation from Nationwide to the charity of their choice, with the runner-up receiving $10,000 and the third-place winner receiving $5,000. Charity Challenge voting takes place from Thursday, Dec. 4 to Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. Beginning Week 14 and continuing through the end of the season, each of this year's club winners, including Kelce, will wear a special Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year helmet decal in recognition of their accomplishments on and off the field. For more information about the award, please visit NFL.com/ManOfTheYear.
