Although the Broncos’ left tackle is a better blocker, his work with the youth may be more impressive.
How do you do more than the best? By expanding toward the greater good. Bowles doesn’t just pass-block better than anyone on the planet, he doesn’t just donate money to off-field causes, he puts in volunteer hours for those causes.
He built a school for the welfare. On top of his mentorship for troubled kids in the juvenile detention system, Broncos’ All Pro and Pro Bowl left tackle Boles opened a training center in Parker for children suffering from apraxia, a speech disorder.
For his off-the-field efforts, Bowles was named the NFL Players Association’s Alan Page Community Award winner on Tuesday.
“It’s part of the legacy, it’s something I want to leave back and show people that it doesn’t matter how you start, it matters how you finish,” Bowles said Tuesday from the second-floor conference room of the Super Bowl LX media center.
“You have to try. Not only on the field but also off the field.”
“I’m a big believer that how you live your life off the field depends on how you perform on the field. It’s definitely a blessing, it’s an honor to see my hard work pay off.”
Boles had a troubled childhood, being kicked out of his father’s house and frequently called into the principal’s office at school. The Freeman family gave him their heart, protected him, included him in their church, and as he matured, Boles found his calling on the football field.
Beyond gratitude – the word he uses most often – Boles found that true peace and happiness is found when it is shared.
“It’s all about sharing,” Boles said. “Sharing is caring.” To be able to show kids this – it’s all about the youth, it’s all about the next generation – to give them a voice and a platform and to bless their lives in a way that they always bless my life whenever I visit them. This is amazing. I am so grateful not only to stand here today but to represent all the children who are struggling and suffering.”
Bowles is also up for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year, which the league considers its most prestigious award, even if nothing beats the annual Most Valuable Player trophy.
The Walter Payton honor will be announced at Thursday night’s NFL Honors event but in the meantime, any award in Alan Page’s name is significant.
The central figure in the famous Purple People Eaters, the unforgettable nickname of the Minnesota Vikings’ defensive front four in the 1960s and ’70s, Page was the NFL’s first defensive player to be named Most Valuable Player. More impressively, Page later became a Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, a position he held for 23 years.
“Pretty amazing,” said Boles, who was born the same year (1992) that Page was first elected to the state Supreme Court. ”What he did on the field was remarkable and shows the type of player he was. He loved soccer, but to be a top judge and a judge, one of the highest honors you can get and representing that community, being able to show that everything is possible is really a blessing.
“To be able to know him and study him and understand what this award means to me and my family and that I get a chance to represent him and his family to carry on the tradition.”
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