The Bay Area may have scored awfully high on Forbes magazine's "Most Disliked People in Sports" list. But we're home to some of the really good guys, too.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Raiders three-time Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha will be awarded the 2010 Jefferson Prize, a prestigious annual prize honoring achievement in national community service.
The Jefferson Prize has previously been awarded to Henry Kissinger, Bill and Melinda Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and four different U.S. Supreme Court justices. It is known in the charity community as the "Nobel Prize for public service".
Nnamdi Asougha has not won an actual Nobel Prize here. But he is only 28, and I wouldn't bet against him.
Asomugha's many notable achievements in philanthropy include serving as chairman of the Orphans and Widows in Need Foundation, founding the Asomugha College Tour for Scholars mentoring program, recruiting for the Clinton Global Initiative's developing nations efforts, and receiving the President's Volunteer Service Award from George W. Bush in 2008.
Nnamdi Asomugha could kick Chuck Norris' ass with kindness.
"There is so much negative stuff out there that sometimes you don't hear all the positive stories about what athletes do," Asomugha told the Chronicle. "But a professional athlete can be a very powerful and influential member of the community."
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Nnamdi's non-profit, the Asomugha Foundation, can bring critical support and assistance into your life even if you are not a widow or orphan struggling to survive in a developing nation.
Because the Asomugha Foundation can also help you score discounted tickets to Raiders home games.
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who thinks Nnamdi Asomugha deserves an actual Nobel Prize for his guest co-hosting on Bay Area Sports Sunday with Raj Mathai.
