David Newton, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Here's what makes Thomas Davis finalist for Man of Year award

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Beth Downer was just an interested observer, standing in a hallway at the Charlotte School of Law, when Thomas Davis was asked about success stories that have come out of his Youth Leadership Academy.

"We have a parent right here," Davis said, pointing to Downer about 10 feet away. "I'll let her tell you."

Listening to the single mom passionately describe how the academy impacted her two children, it didn't take long to understand why Davis, an outside linebacker for the Carolina Panthers, is a finalist to be the Walter Payton Man of the Year, which will be awarded Saturday night in Arizona.

The passion was most evident as Downer described the changes in her 17-year-old son, Derek.

"I can't begin to tell you the amount of trouble I was having with him," she said. "He was into gangs. He was into smoking. He was into just about anything.

"I almost gave up. I really didn't know where he was going to go."

Derek was coming from a court appearance when he first met Davis, who became the father figure and role model Derek didn't have.

"I ran into some trouble," Derek said. "He taught me it was never an end. You get bumps. You get over them. Just him being around gave me a direction."

Derek's mother said her son, who has been active in the academy for three years, has a part-time job now and is scheduled to graduate high school on time.

Stories such as these will be shared Saturday when Davis, along with fellow Payton finalists Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers and Anquan Boldin of the San Francisco 49ers, are recognized during the fourth annual "NFL Honors" awards show, held 30 miles from where Super Bowl XLIX will take place the next night.

It is the second straight year Davis has been a finalist. He said winning would be the "highest honor I've ever received as a player."

The Youth Leadership Academy, which meets on select Monday nights during the school year, is just one reason Davis is a finalist. The Thomas Davis Defending Dreams Foundation annually supports a school supply drive, football camp and Christmas gift giveaway, as well as a Thanksgiving meal program that feeds battered women and children. The foundation funded the building of a park in Davis' hometown of Shellman, Georgia, and has raised more than $500,000 overall.

"Thomas Davis lives his life the way that Walter Payton did -- family and community first," said Panthers coach Ron Rivera, a Chicago Bears teammate of Payton's from 1984-87.

Davis personifies what it means to overcome long odds. In 2011, he had ACL reconstructive surgery on his right knee for the third time. No NFL player was known to have come back from three ACL tears on the same knee. Davis not only returned, he put together three consecutive 100-tackle seasons.

Davis also knows what it's like to grow up without a father, without the money it takes to go to football camp or get Christmas gifts.

"It was my childhood," Davis said when asked what inspired him to start his foundation. "Me sitting at home as a kid wishing I had someone to come and help me to face being in the situation I was in, growing up in a poor town, with a parent that was struggling to raise two kids."

Motivated in part by his desire to set a good example, Davis completed his degree at the University of Georgia in 2011, six years after leaving school early to enter the NFL draft.

"I'm up talking to kids all the time about the importance of education, telling them they need to go to school, telling them they need to get their degrees," Davis said. "But at the end of the day I stood in front of them being a hypocrite because I hadn't yet graduated."

"It was a promise I made to my grandmother, as well," he added. "I wanted to share that promise and let kids realize it doesn't matter about me being in the NFL, my education was more important."

Davis doesn't hide that he wants to win the Man of the Year award. He knows the recognition and money -- $50,000 to a charity of the winner's choice -- will help more people in need.

Nobody will be pulling harder for Davis on Saturday than Beth Downer, a driver for Charlotte Area Transit.

"You have no idea," she said. "I'm going to be like a little kid in a candy shop if he wins."

Davis smiled, as he had during Downer's entire endorsement of the Youth Leadership Academy.

"I don't think I could have said it better," he said.

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