Even though they may not feel monumental in the moment, sometimes the smallest gestures make the biggest impact. For Andrew Whitworth, the NFL’s most recent winner of the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, a few moments he shared with a young impressionable mind years ago left an imprint that one current NFL player will never, ever forget.
Whitworth, the leagues’ oldest offensive lineman, shared a tale shortly after accepting the Man of the Year trophy at the NFL Honors show late Thursday night that he’ll likely never forget either.
At 40 years old, Whitworth has played 16 NFL seasons. Now he’s reaching the Super Bowl for the second time of the year, hoping to win his first league championship. But before he became a member of the Los Angeles Rams, Whitworth was a longtime Cincinnati Bengal, where he spent 11 seasons as their starting left tackle.
It was during that time in Cincinnati that he left an impact he never knew about until he played against the Detroit Lions in Week 7 back in October. As he mentioned at the NFL Honors show, shortly after the game finished a member of the Lions started sprinting toward the big offensive lineman, and Whitworth didn’t know what to do.
Once the player caught up to him, Whitworth met this person for what he thought was the first time in his life, but linebacker Derrick Barnes and Whitworth had actually met before. I’ll let Whitworth tell the rest of the story.
It’s a heartwarming tale and the moment is likely one Whitworth will never forget. Just as Derrick Barnes has likely been a fan of Whitworth’s ever since that exchange so many years ago, Whitworth is likely now a forever fan of Barnes.
Andrew Whitworth has accomplished so much on and off the field
NFL fans know Andrew Whitworth as the offensive lineman who’s managed to defeat Father Time for several years now. Back when he became a free agent after 11 years and 164 games with the Bengals, there was some question as to how much Whitworth had left in the tank.
Five full seasons as a starter later, it’s easy to see how all the skeptics were wrong. Heck, even the analytics-based Pro Football Focus has Whitworth still grading as an elite player, even at 40 years old. Per PFF, Whitworth has an 86.1 grade this season across 926 snaps.
In other words, win or lose, Whitworth appears to still have even more gas in the tank.
