The Green Bay Packers have nominated former Packers guard Daryn Colledge for the 12th annual NFL Salute to Service Award, which recognizes NFL players, coaches, staff and alumni with demonstrable commitment to honoring and supporting military and veteran communities.
New this year is an opportunity for fans to vote for their favorite nominee, which will help determine the award’s three finalists. To see all the nominees and vote, fans can visit NFL.com/SaluteFanVote from now until November 30. One vote per day, per fan is permitted.
Each club has nominated an individual and finalists are scheduled to be announced in January. The recipient will be recognized at NFL Honors, a primetime awards special to air nationally the week of Super Bowl LVII. The winner of the award will be honored with a $25,000 donation to a military or veterans charity of their choosing, as well as a $25,000 donation in their name to official aid societies representing all U.S. military branches.
(Packers.com featured Colledge and his military service in a story posted in November of 2019. Click here to re-visit that feature.)
Selected by the Packers out of Boise State in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft, the durable offensive lineman spent five seasons with the team, culminating in the Packers’ victory in Super Bowl XLV. He started at left guard, playing in all 80 possible regular season games, and went on to play three seasons in Arizona (2011-13) and one in Miami (2014). After retiring from the NFL in 2015, Colledge enlisted in the Idaho National Guard in 2016 as a UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopter repairer.
“I always wanted to come back and serve, and I had a great opportunity to do that,” said Colledge. “It was like being back in a locker room, just being with a group of people who had the same goal as you and were striving for the same outcome…I found that team and that brotherhood again in the military that I had been missing. Different goals and consequences, but a team nonetheless.”
Growing up in North Pole, Alaska, Colledge was surrounded by military bases and family members serving, including his brother. He continued fostering that military connection while playing football, traveling as part of a Navy Entertainment trip in 2011 with the Packers and taking USO tours when he could. When he returned to Boise, he decided to enlist there to give back to the community that supported him in college. In 2018, he was deployed to Afghanistan for nine months, serving as a mechanic,…
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