From BuffaloBills.com: The Buffalo Bills have named C Eric Wood as the team’s 2016 Walter Payton Man of the Year Nominee.
For the first time in recent history, Bills players and coaches voted during a team meeting to select the team’s nomination. Wood is a highly respected veteran at One Bills Drive, and has earned this prestigious title for his dedication to his team on-field, and to his community off the field.
On the field, Eric boasts an impressive resume. Wood has started in all 104 games that he has appeared in. In 2015, he blocked for the Bills rushing attack that led the league in both yards and yards per carry, earned Pro Bowl honors, and led the way for the Bills to have three rushers surpass the 500-yard mark for the Bills’ first time since 1962. At the time of Wood’s injury in Week 9 this season, he was helping the Bills’ 2016 rushing attack once again lead the league in both total rushing yards and average yards per carry.
Off the field, Eric has worked diligently to grow his own foundation. Established in 2014, The Eric Wood Foundation provides seriously ill, special needs, and physically challenged children throughout the Greater Buffalo region with daily encouragement and life-changing experiences. Eric was inspired to start the foundation by his brother Evan who passed away at age 11 from severe cerebral palsy. Since the inception of the foundation, nearly $400,000 has been raised to directly impact the lives of those who need it most.
Throughout his tenure with the team, Wood has redefined the term “Bills in the Community” with his continued commitment to contribute to a variety of programs supported on a league level. Eric has been a key to the success of the Bills Play 60 program, Billieve/A Crucial Catch outreach, Salute to Service initiatives, and more. Aside from these larger scale campaigns, Eric is an ambassador for the Teammates for Kids Foundation, assisted in several Bills Make-A-Wish visits, makes impromptu stops at local hospitals and schools, and regularly participates in Bills Community initiatives including visiting the Community Hospitality Tent at Training Camp, providing Thanksgiving Meals for families at the Food Bank of Western New York and handing out gifts at the Bills holiday party for children.