Sacramento pastors describe 49ers' Arik Armstead as a champion on and off the field
The NFL honored the best of the league with their annual awards show on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
The award we all were watching from Northern California was NFL Man of the Year to see if Elk Grove native Arik Armstead would finally take it home.
Despite being nominated by San Francisco for the fourth straight year, Armstead didn't walk away with the award in hand. It was Pittsburgh Steelers player Cam Heyward who won the Walter Payton Man of the Year honor.
But here's the thing about that award, there are no losers. Everyone nominated is a winner, and Armstead is a champion off the field every time he sets foot in Sacramento.
At Midtown Church in Sacramento, Armstead is well known.
"Easy to see why he's up for the NFL Man of the Year," Pastor Bob Balian said. "He does so much of the community so generous."
Balian knows Arik's parents well.
"His parents are great people. His mom is a pastor at our church. His dad is an elder and a board member at our church. So it's again easy to see why he's up for the NFL Man of the Year," Balian said.
Associate Pastor Otis Amey, a former 49er himself, knows the importance of faith in a job like the NFL.
"He's a very steady individual so you never see Arik get too low," Amey said. "You never seem to get too high and that's how we need to be in terms of walking out our faith."
So I asked both: What bible verse describes Arik Armstead?
"Proverbs 14 and 23 say all hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads to poverty. So I know Arik as someone that doesn't talk a lot. He puts the work in."
"Phillipians 2 where Christ is talking about emptying yourself. He's talking about others first. He's talking about his mantle as Christ not being something to be grasped at, and I think Arik is similar in that regard in that I don't think he being an all-pro type football player is something he's holding on to just for the sake of that. I think he's using it for more."
Those are indicators of a servant leader, one that Sacramento can be proud of, Man of the Year award or not.
