Richards Earns Pop Warner Award
ORLANDO, Fla. – Stanford senior safety Jordan Richards was honored with the Pop Warner College Football Award, presented by Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc., the nation’s oldest youth football organization, Wednesday at the Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports.
The Pop Warner College Football Award honors a player who has contributed at a high level on the field, in the classroom and in his community, emulating the ideals of Pop Warner. This year’s finalists also included Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, Nebraska running back Ameer Abdullah and Florida center Max Garcia.
“Jordan is the epitome of an exceptional student-athlete, representing Stanford with tremendous dedication on the field, in the classroom and in the community,” said Jon Butler, executive director of Pop Warner Little Scholars. “We created the Pop Warner National College Football Award to honor a student-athlete who stands as a positive example for our young athletes and each of our finalists and nominees do that. We’re very proud to present this honor to Jordan.”
Past recipients have included former Nebraska cornerback and current New York Giant Prince Amukamara, former Virginia and current Redskins cornerback Chase Minnifield, former Duke and current Falcons quarterback Sean Renfree and last year to former Purdue University wide receiver Gary Bush.
Richards accepted the award in-person Wednesday after arriving straight from Tuesday night’s National Football Foundation Awards Dinner, where he accepted his scholar-athlete award and was a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy, which recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation.
“I am so incredibly thankful to Jon Butler and the Pop Warner Little Scholars for this award,” said Richards following a motivational speech that he gave to one of the competing teams. "I played Pop Warner football and have wonderful memories of playing at that age. I have definitely taken life lessons from the game and hope these young players will use their experiences as a springboard to great things.”
Richards is a public policy major from Folsom, Calif. An Academic All-America selection in 2013, Richards is regarded as one of the premier student-athletes in the country. A 2014 team captain, Richards earned notice on preseason All-America teams including ESPN, Athlon and Phil Steele.
Other lists featuring Richards are the Lott IMPACT Trophy (semifinalist) and Senior CLASS Award, which honors a college football player who makes a positive impact as a leader in the community. Richards is also a 2014 CoSIDA Academic All-District selection.
In the community, Richards was a student teacher last summer for the Tri-District Summer Math Institute and tutor at East Palo Alto Academy.
Richards, who leads Stanford with three forced fumbles, three interceptions and 52 solo tackles (76 total), is a highly-regarded presence on campus and recently contributed time to Stanford University’s “It’s On Us” campaign to prevent sexual assault and relationship violence.
Richards was joined at the National Football Foundation’s annual awards dinner by Stanford graduate Darrin Nelson, a former Scholar-Athlete winner who was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame.
About Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc.
Founded in 1929 and headquartered in Langhorne, Pa., Pop Warner Little Scholars is the world’s largest youth football, cheerleading and dance organization and the only youth sports organization that emphasizes academics as a prerequisite for participation.
Currently there are over 400,000 children in Pop Warner organizations in 43 states, Scotland, Germany, Russia, Japan and Mexico. The NFLPA estimates that 70 pct. of all current NFL Players got their start in Pop Warner programs. For more information on Pop Warner and its programs visit PopWarner.com or follow Pop Warner on Twitter (@Pop_Warner).