How does Sacramento’s Super Bowl-bound Arik Armstead balance charity work and playing football?

Arik Armstead’s list of accolades could reach new heights Thursday night in Las Vegas while he prepares to appear in his second Super Bowl for the San Francisco 49ers.

Armstead is the team’s nominee for the prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, considered the NFL’s highest honor, given annually to the player who embodies excellence on and off the field. The award will be given Thursday night at the “NFL’s Honors” award show which airs at 6 p.m. on CBS and the NFL Network.

Armstead and his teammates, of course, are looking for the organization’s sixth Lombardi Trophy Sunday in Las Vegas when they square off against the Kansas City Chiefs in a rematch of the Super Bowl LIV.

The 49ers haven’t won a Super Bowl since the 1994 season and have fallen short in their last two trips.

Off the field, Armstead has become a pillar of Sacramento community through his vast charity work, including through his Armstead Academic Project, which focuses on educational equity for children throughout the Sacramento area. Armstead is from Sacramento and went to Pleasant Grove High School.

Armstead has pledged $2 million toward his efforts while the organization has raised about $500,000 from community members aimed at education equity since the program’s inception in 2019.

The Armstead Academic project has worked directly with 3,960 kids and indirectly, through the foundation’s advocacy programs, with 510,817, according to Aila Malik, the foundation’s executive director.

“He’s the real deal,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said of Armstead. “This isn’t a check the box thing for him. He is completely committed to young people, especially young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

Steinbergin June awarded Armstead a key to the city. Armstead has been the 49ers’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year for four straight years. He’s supported a California literacy bill that has helped more than 400,000 kids. He has programs for elementary school children all the way through high school focused on reading, STEM education and career development.

We spoke with Armstead last year about his charity work, his growing family and plans to continue playing football as long as he can. Questions and answers have been edited for brevity.

Q: What did getting the key to the city mean to you?

A: Getting the key to the city is a huge honor. It’s not necessarily something that I necessarily strived for or dreamed of happening throughout my life. But receiving that honor was definitely amazing. I think it validates the work that I’m trying to accomplish with AAP.

It’s going to give me more opportunities to continue to serve young people in the city of Sacramento.

I love being from there. That’s where my heart is. So I want our city to continue to flourish and grow and see a lot of progress. I really believe that starts with young people and providing them with the opportunities and resources they need. I was really honored and it was a great experience.

Q: How would you describe the progress and evolution of the Armstead Academic Project over the last few years?

A: The progress has been great. We have continued to grow over the past few years. When I started the organization, sustainability a must and something I’ll always — “sustainability” was the number one word in terms of what I though for the vision of the organization.

I didn’t want to start something and it go away. I wanted it to be sustainable and have long-term impact and really change the trajectory of young people’s lives. With that goal and purpose, that takes time. It takes consistently growing the organization throughout the years.

Building out a board, making hires, really adding the right people, building partnerships, building a donor base, building support. So there’s a lot that goes into it. We made a hire, we hired an interim executive director a year ago now, named Aila Malik. And she’s really helped us a lot, taking things to next level, and really filled out from an infrastructure standpoint.

I felt like we were at the junction point where we really needed to focus. And things have been amazing. We have been impacting more students. We have been able to build out a three- and five-year plan and so it’s been a lot of fun and I really can’t do anything on my own. It’s been great growing through that process and bringing people on and really growing from an organizational standpoint.

Q: How much time does it take to balance your charitable work with football and family during the off-season?

A: Yeah, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. To be honest, we’re kind of a hybrid organization where a traditional foundation just kind of donates to programs. So we’re kind of a hybrid where we have programming and a foundation where we donate money to and partner with a lot of organizations that are doing amazing work but also we’re building out programs that impact our own Armstead Academy after school program and other initiatives.

So it can be time consuming. That’s why I feel like having the right team is very important. And it would be difficult for me to put it into an hourly (schedule), like how much time I spend on it. It’s a lot. It’s a big commitment. But it’s all worth it.

Q: How has having two daughters, Amiri and Ayla, changed your life and your outlook?

A: Yeah, having two now has definitely been a lot of fun. But we’re not outnumbered yet. We’re playing man-to-man, sometimes. But it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been great to see The differences in personality, it’s been great to interact with one another, and so it’s been a lot of fun. And life hasn’t changed too dramatically going from one to two. But the daily has been a lot of fun for me in the off-season, being able to come home to them.

My favorite part of the day is coming home to them and really being able to play with them and get caught up on their day and the different things that they have going on. Sad at times, too, because they’re growing so fast and you wish you could keep them as babies forever. But they grow very fast and at times you think they’re growing too fast and changing too fast, like you’re missing out on things that are so precious at this time of their lives.

Q: Given you turned 30 and this is your ninth NFL season, do you ever start to think about life beyond football?

A: No, not at all. I mean, I’ve always been a guy that knows the importance of not being “football, football, football, football,” 24-7. Being able to realize that there are other things in life than football. But in terms of where I’m at now, I’m thinking about dominating the game of football and being the best player I can for a while, quite some time longer. Those thoughts don’t even creep into my head. I’ve got a lot more things to accomplish, a lot more seasons ahead of me. So that’s my focus now.

Q: Is spending 10 years with the 49ers something that’s important to you?

A: One-hundred percent. I think that’s definitely something special, if you’re able to be one place for 10 years. That’s not very common. It means that you’re doing something right. And it’s been a huge blessing to be here for this long. It’s been a huge blessing to be close to where I’m from and be in Northern California for this long. And playing for a great organization who does things the right way, and I try to do things the right way as well, and represent not only myself, my family, where I’m from, and also our team. And so it definitely means a lot to be here for this long. It’s not very common. And it’s been a great time that I’m trying to keep going.