Kyle Rudolph wins charity portion of 2018 Walter Payton Man of the Year Challenge

I jumped the gun earlier and used the incorrect phraseology on the original story I did on this, so this will serve as a correction to that. The only excuse I can offer up for the original story is that I messed up, and for that I apologize.

It was just announced at halftime of the AFC Championship Game on CBS that Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph was named the winner of the 2018 Walter Payton Man of the Year Challenge. He has not won the 2018 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. . .that award will be given out at the NFL Honors ceremony the night before this year’s Super Bowl.

Rudolph won this award as a result of Vikings fans tweeting and retweeting the #WPMOYChallenge hashtag with his last name more frequently than any of the 31 players that he was competing against (each team nominates one player for the award). Winning the Charity Challenge means that Rudolph will receive an extra $25,000 for his charity of choice. I believe that his charity is the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital, where Kyle and his wife Jordan have spent a great deal of time and money in their efforts to enrich and enhance the lives of the young people there that are dealing with serious medical issues.

Rudolph wouldn’t have gotten this award if not for the efforts of Vikings fans like you folks out there constantly hammering that hashtag on social media. We tried to include it on a lot of our tweets, and I know that a lot of you folks out there were active with is as well.

Rudolph is also trying to become the third member of the Vikings’ organization to win the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Cris Carter won the award in 1999, and Madieu Williams won the award in 2010.

Congratulations to Kyle Rudolph on winning the 2018 Walter Payton Man of the Year Charity Challenge. . .but not the 2018 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.

Not yet, anyway.