Each year before the start of free agency, members of the Washington Redskins front office get together to map out the master plan.
Starting first with the impact players that can improve the roster, general manager Bruce Allen and Co. must decide if a player can help them both on and off the field. It was no surprise that linebacker and special teamer Adam Hayward was a priority once the clock struck 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
In addition to being a solid defender and special teams ace, Hayward was a pillar in the Tampa Bay community before coming to Washington.
"It was just something that happened," the humble Hayward noted to Redskins.comTV's Larry Michael. "I love helping people out."
Hayward has poured much of his efforts into breast cancer awareness, ever since the disease robbed him of his mother while he was in college.
By talking to survivors and their family members, he is able to help overcome his own emotional scars left behind.
"Just being able to be there, just to see somebody who's gone through it, letting them know that if I made it, they can make it," he explained. "I'm not perfect, so I want them to know it was hard.
"I love doing that."
Hayward also taps into his past when working with orphaned, inner-city children. A seasoned outdoorsman himself, Hayward enjoys providing kids with an opportunity to just have fun.
"I really just have a heart for working with children, especially young children that don't have their parents," he said with a smile. "Back in Tampa, we have a ministry that I work with where we take inner-city kids who have just been abandoned.
"I'm a big-time hunter and outdoorsman, so we take these kids from city life and just being surrounded by drugs and just no way out, to the outdoors."
"We just teach them that there is more to life and people do love you. I know it's tough, my childhood was tough, and so was this person's and this person's. But we made it, so you can make it too."
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