SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Dec. 8, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — The Denver Broncos have nominated offensive lineman Garett Bolles for the 2023 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award for his work with children with learning disabilities and teens in the juvenile justice system.
Bolles, who played at the University of Utah, Snow College and Westlake High School, has been volunteering in the Denver community since being selected 10th overall by the Broncos in the 2017 NFL Draft.
Much of that time has been spent mentoring teens in the juvenile justice system, something that Bolles says changed his life in his teenage years.
“My teenage years were hard,” he writes on his GB3 Foundation website. “I switched junior highs and high schools five different times. I was failing all of my classes, hanging out with the wrong crowd, experiencing an extremely unstable home life, and battling several addictions. I even spent time in jail.
“It wasn’t until I found a group of mentors — people who saw the good in me and were willing to work with me until I could see it for myself — that my life turned around.”
Bolles has been returning that favor by mentoring Colorado teens as they navigate the juvenile justice system. He has mentored more than 100 teens so far and regularly makes mentorship visits to Arapahoe County juvenile probation court and a secure youth detention facility.
“This means the world to me,” Bolles said of the nomination. “I don’t do this just to [say], ‘Look at me.’ I really do this because I genuinely love and care for these kids. I know they say I helped them, but they helped me, and they give me that fight every single day to go out there on the football field and to live my dream of playing football.”
Bolles has been a mainstay on the offensive line for the Broncos, starting 92 games since 2017. He was named to The Associated Press’ All-Pro Second Team in 2020.
Bolles started all 13 games in his only season at Utah in 2016 after beginning his collegiate career at Snow College.
“Garett has one of the biggest hearts that you’ll ever come around,” Broncos offensive lineman Mike McGlinchey said. “He shows his love for everyone he’s around, constantly. … The care that he has for other people and the journey he’s been on and the way he can help kids that were like him is certainly why he’s in the position to get nominated for that award.”
Bolles is one of 32 nominees for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award, which will be announced Feb. 8.
The GB3 Foundation was created to “empower children and youth with learning disabilities to find success through mentors in educational strategies, spiritual and mental wellbeing, whole body nutrition and physical health for the purpose of equipping them to live their dream,” according to the foundation website.
