MKRob Sports

Kansas City Chiefs guard Brian Waters was never certain where life might take him. Maybe he would coach or teach. Or maybe he’d be a lawyer or a football player.

One thing was never in doubt: Waters would give to others.

Before tonight’s kickoff of Super Bowl XLIV, the NFL will recognize Waters’ dedication to community service when he is introduced as the 40th winner of the league’s most prestigious honor, the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, which recognizes both excellence on the field and in the community.

“The stories that are shared with us,” he says, “and the little things we’re able to do for them is the most gratifying.”

Waters was a finalist for the second time in three years for the award. Washington linebacker London Fletcher and Cleveland receiver Mike Furrey were the other finalists.

Waters is the fifth Chiefs player to win the honor, and that’s more than any team in the league. He follows linebacker Willie Lanier (1972), quarterback Len Dawson (1973), linebacker Derrick Thomas (1993) and guard Will Shields (2003).

“If you came to play there,” Lanier says of Kansas City, “that was only part of your mission. If you didn’t recognize there was a larger mission outside the lines than just playing the game on Sunday, you didn’t fulfill what your expectations were.”

Following in impressive footsteps, Waters has shared his time and riches with thousands of children. He’s done it in the Kansas City area and in his native Waxahachie, Texas, the small town south of Dallas where Waters learned years ago that gifts are given but also can be taken away. He learned then that success is a delicate thing, and Waters came close once to allowing his short temper to derail a promising future.

Waters has his way, and today proves that, at least with him, success sometimes leads down side roads and tough paths. He says he never forgot where his trip began. After all, Waters has a few stories of his own.

“My long road is just another story,” he says. “I still feel in my heart, no matter what I’d be doing right now, whether it be a lawyer or a teacher or a coach — which were the other three options — if football didn’t make it, I wanted to be a blessing to others.”