Beloved, dedicated Tyler Lockett Seahawks’ nominee for NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year
Tyler Lockett changed the trajectory of the Seahawks’ season.
Last weekend before they played San Francisco, he asked his teammates during a Saturday night team meeting, what is your why? The next day, he changed the season with his latest brilliant, look-over-both-shoulders touchdown catch, the go-ahead score in Seattle’s second win in more than two months.
He’s been changing lives of kids and the disadvantaged from Oklahoma to Seattle for years.
Lockett won again on Tuesday. The Seahawks named the often-beaming, seemingly-always-giving wide receiver their 2021 nominee for the NFL’s prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year award.
The list of reasons is as long as Lockett is sterling, on and off the field.
“To be named the Seahawks Man of the Year, for me, is truly a blessing and does really mean a lot to me,” Lockett said in a statement the team released Tuesday. “Being able to be highlighted for everything I’m doing off the field, that’s what’s truly special to me, because that’s what gives me joy, that’s what allows me to have meaning — being able to try to show people outside of football that they, too, are able to win in life.
“I give back because that’s what puts a smile on my face.”
Lockett should have a grin as wide as the western half of the country.
The 29-year-old native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, created his Light It Up Foundation that supports Black persons, youth, students and homeless. This year his organization donated $32,000 in clothing, shoes, food to the Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless. He donated $6,000 to support Domestic Violence Intervention Services in his hometown. Lockett partnered with Fulton Street Books & Coffee, Tulsa’s only Black-owned bookstore, to raise money for Black-owned businesses while shining a light on Black history through a collection of Black History bookmarks.
This year Lockett created a new college scholarship program. He chose seven students to receive $34,000 for an academic year to schools such as Tennessee State, Wichita State, Oral Roberts and Tulsa Community College.
His Youth Sports Leadership Initiative gave $21,000 in Adidas uniforms and funding to three youth-sports programs in Oklahoma.
He joined with Kansas State University’s athletic department to give its football program, in which Lockett played, $10,000 to have data-tracking technology for its players, as the Seahawks use for theirs.
Two years ago, Lockett started a job-shadow program that identifies high school seniors from disadvantaged backgrounds in Tulsa and gives them chances to learn from leaders in various industries. In 2019, three students in that program visited the Seahawks and learned from departments inside the team’s headquarters in Renton. Lockett gives each student in that program a college scholarship, in addition to the ones listed above.
For the last five years Lockett has hosted two-day youth football camps in the Seattle area and in Oklahoma.
Lockett reads poems and spoken word. He’s a published author. His first published work was a book of poetry, “Reflection,” in 2019. The poems have as topics identity, race, sports, relationships and how to live a purposeful life.
In 2020 he and New Orleans Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins were executive producers for a documentary film “Black Boys” that examines harmful perceptions of young Black men and women as it relates to education, sports and criminal justice. Lockett hosted a virtual meeting with students from Seattle’s Garfield and Chief Sealth high schools to discuss the film and the issue.
The NFL will announce its winner of the Walter Payton Man of the Year during a nationally televised, prime-time awards special in February, the Thursday before Super Bowl 56 in Los Angeles.
Each of the 32 nominees from each team receive an up to $40,000 donation in his name to a charity of his choice. The winner of the league’s most prestigious award will receive a $250,000 donation to the charity of his choice.
Recent Seahawks nominees include Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright.
This past February, Wilson was named the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year for 2020.
This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 11:46 AM.
