Safety Kevin Byard III on Tuesday was presented with the 2025 Jeff Dickerson Good Guy Award by the Chicago chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America.
The honor is given annually to a Bears player who best helps the media do its job. It's named after Dickerson, a longtime ESPN reporter who passed away Dec. 28, 2021, at the age of 43 after a year-long battle with colon cancer.
Byard received the award from Chicago Sun-Times Bears beat writer Patrick Finley, president of the Chicago chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America. Dickerson's parents, George and Sandy, attended the press conference at Halas Hall.
"Thank you to everybody who voted for me; that's definitely an awesome award," Byard said. "Honestly, every single day I just try to be as authentic as I possibly can. I try to be a good human being and just try to be the same person every day."
Byard credited his mother with teaching him about morals and treating people with respect. He also won the first Good Guy Award presented to a Titans player by the Tennessee media in 2022. That honor is named after former Titans star running back Eddie George.
Since joining the Bears in 2024, Byard has been a valuable contributor on and off the field. Last year he led the defense with a career-high 120 tackles. This season he tops the NFL with six interceptions, increasing his career total to 35, the most by any player since he entered the league in 2016.
On Tuesday, the NFL announced that Byard has been selected to the Pro Bowl for the third time. He also went and was named first-team All-Pro twice when he played for the Titans: in 2017 when he tied for the NFL lead with eight interceptions and had 16 pass breakups, and in 2017 when he recorded five interceptions and 13 pass breakups.
Off the field, Byard and his wife, Clarke, have worked with the Rally Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises funds for childhood cancer research. This past week, they hosted a milk and cookies party for children impacted by cancer.
"We have worked with them for the past nine years and it's been an awesome thing," Byard said. "I definitely know the impact of what cancer can do to people. That's one reason why we support that foundation, because we want to continue to try and raise money and fund money for a cure for cancer."
Through their own charitable organization, the Byard Foundation Legacy, Byard and his wife last week provided 200 meals to Illinois veterans.
In winning the Good Guy Award, Byard will be gifted a $1,000 donation to the charity of his choice courtesy of the Vaughn McClure & Jeff Dickerson Foundation.
After finishing second to teammate Cole Kmet for last year's Good Guy Award, Byard was a unanimous choice this year.
Previous recipients of the award were Josh McCown (2013), Ryan Mundy (2014), Matt Slauson (2015), Tracy Porter (2016), Zach Miller (2017), Prince Amukamara (2018), Allen Robinson II (2019), Mitchell Trubisky (2020) co-winners Robert Quinn and Tashaun Gipson Sr. (2021), Kmet (2022, 2024) and Eddie Jackson (2023).
