The New Orleans Saints announced today that linebacker Demario Davis has been selected as the team’s club winner for the 2025 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award presented by Nationwide for the third time in his career. 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.
“I am truly humbled to be the 2025 team winner of the Walter Payton Man of the Year award,” said Davis. “Growing up in Mississippi, Walter Payton the football player was always someone I looked up to. As I got older, learning about the things he did in the community only increased my respect of him even more. Through my Devoted Dreamers Foundation, we are more committed than ever to developing youth to become dynamic young men and women who will lead this community into the future.”
“Ever since he joined the Saints in 2018, Demario’s commitment to both our football team and to our community has earned the respect of everyone inside and outside of the organization,” said Saints Owner Gayle Benson. “As an eight-time team captain and our leading tackler in his eight seasons as a Saint, his football accomplishments cannot be questioned. However, the way he has positively affected our community, especially our youth, is the reason he is a three-time winner of this award. Demario is an outstanding ambassador for everything that the Saints and the National Football League stand for. I am extremely proud of him for being chosen as the team’s Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year winner and for representing us as our nominee for the league award.”
Davis has been a perfect fit on the field for the Saints, as well as in the Gulf South community, since signing with the club as an unrestricted free agent in 2018. On the field, he’s opened all 126 regular-season games that he’s started and played in for New Orleans as the team’s defensive signal-caller and eight-time defensive team captain, leading the Saints in tackles each season with 922 stops (552 solo), 31.0 sacks, three interceptions, 47 pass breakups, five forced fumbles, and four recoveries. In 2025. Davis has again anchored the middle of the Black and Gold defense, leading the team with 111 tackles, two pass breakups, two forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery. Overall, in his 14th NFL season, Davis has posted 1,582 career tackles (981 solo), 44.5 sacks, four picks, 64 pass breakups, six forced fumbles, and nine fumble recoveries, receiving two Pro Bowl selections and five Associated Press All-Pro honors.
Off the field, Davis has been heavily involved in community service, youth engagement, faith-based and social justice initiatives, both in the New Orleans area and his home state of Mississippi. Davis and his wife, Tamela, started the Devoted Dreamers Foundation in 2013 to equip the next generation of leaders with the tools to be successful spiritually, mentally, and physically.
Essential to Davis’ community efforts in 2025 has been the launch of a leadership development program with The18th Ward, a local nonprofit that builds community through high-quality, affordable sports programming and workforce development for youth and families from every neighborhood in New Orleans. This fall, 25 young leaders (ages 16-24), who are a part of The 18th Ward’s Leadership Development Program, met weekly with Davis, as well as local leaders and Saints teammates enlisted by the defensive team captain to learn the value of servant leaders in the community. Through this partnership with its focus on workforce development, servant leadership, and equity, the initiative aims to make a tangible difference in the futures of underserved youth in New Orleans.
On Monday, November 24, Davis, his family, and Devoted Dreamers volunteers collaborated with The 18th Ward young leaders to entrust and enlist them to plan a service project, a food and hygiene product drive to benefit the local non-profit Clover to distribute, which works to help those in need in the New Orleans community.
Through his “Dining for Dreams” fundraiser, a celebrity waiter dinner held in October, with him and his teammates serving as waiters, Davis and the Devoted Dreamers Foundation are utilizing the charitable proceeds and personal donations to provide micro-grants to small businesses throughout the fall and winter, directly impacting over 5,000 people in New Orleans.
Impressed with the Boys and Girls Club organization’s mentorship and programs both nationally and locally, in November, Demario and Tamela Davis hosted their annual “Dinner with the Davis” event in November in conjunction with the New Orleans chapter. Seeking to promote and encourage family mealtime, families from the Boys and Girls Club of Gretna (La.), were treated to dinner featuring their favorite meals from the Davis’ personalized food truck, along with balloon sculpting, face painting, video game trucks, and virtual reality equipment.
Having sponsored seven-on-seven football teams and served as a proponent for girls’ flag football being recognized as a varsity sport in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, the growth of the sport of football is also a priority of Davis. Realizing the platform of the sports and recognizing its worldwide growth, Davis represented the Saints this summer on a tour of France, where the team has been granted exclusive international marketing rights by the NFL. Davis participated in meet-and-greets with American and French Saints fans, conducted a flag football clinic in tandem with the Federation Francaise de Football Americain, and attended a game of the Paris Musketeers, who play in the European League of Football.
All 32 club winners will be recognized for their achievements during the week leading up to Super Bowl LX. 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. Davis’ Devoted Dreamers Foundation will receive up to $55,000, and the nonprofit chosen by the overall national winner will receive up to $265,000. Funds are donations courtesy of the NFL Foundation and the Nationwide Foundation.
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 nominee or by voting directly on NFL.com/ManOfTheYear. The nominee who receives the most collective hashtag mentions and online votes will win an additional $35,000 donation from Nationwide, with the nonprofit partners of the runner-up and third-place finishers receiving $10,000 and $5,000, respectively. Charity Challenge voting takes place from December 4 to January 5, 2026.
Beginning with the Week 14 contests and continuing through the end of the season, each of this year’s nominees, including Davis, starting with Sunday’s contest at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will wear a special Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year helmet decal in recognition of their accomplishments on and off the field.
