Julian Love’s got a lot going on this season.
He and his wife Julia are still-new parents to a 23-month-old son, Noah.
Dad has missed nine of the first 12 Seahawks games this season because of a hamstring injury. These are the first games the 27-year-old Love has missed in his football life.
On his way back from injured reserve, he hurt the hamstring again working out in late October.
“It was tough,” he said Thursday. “We were training here, and it was a moment before the bye week on the practice field, and just the hamstring got worse. It was a setback…it definitely had a lasting effect.
“The setback before that bye week was killer. The bye week was supposed to be a week of relaxation and de-stressing, and that was not the case for me. I was pretty fired up.”
While he’s been out injured the Pro Bowl veteran has watched former practice-squad player Ty Okada excel in his safety spot next to Coby Bryant.
This week Love is in his second try at returning to play. The team designated him to return to practice off IR. He was on the field Wednesday and Thursday practicing for the first time since he last played, Sept. 25 at Arizona.
Love may, or may not, play Sunday when the Seahawks (9-3) seek to stay atop the NFC West visiting the Atlanta Falcons (4-8). Coach Mike Macdonald says there is a “ramp-up” plan for Love to work him back into playing, so he doesn’t have another setback.
Amid all this, Seahawks staffers asked Love Wednesday to come into an upstairs office to sit in front of a teleprompter and camera. It was ostensibly to read and record a promotional spot.
Suddenly, he became emotional reciting the script. It had him unknowingly reading the news to himself he is the team’s 2025 nominee for the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. It’s awarded for a players’ excellence in philanthropy and community impact plus on the field.
Teammate Uchenna Nwosu, the Seahawks’ 2024 nominee for one of the league’s most prestigious and perhaps most respected award, walked into the room to surprise Love. He presented Love with a large, framed photo of Love pointing on the field to commemorate his nomination for this year. Love doubled over in his chair. He wiped away tears.
“I walked into that room and I see (a Seahawks employee), and I’m like ‘OK, she’s going to ask me a few questions.’ And I see, like, three other crew members. I’m like, ‘This is way too many people for a little spot read,’” Love said Thursday.
“I’m reading, and doing the thing. And ‘Chenna comes around. It all kind of hit at once. Especially for my first day back on the field (from the injury). It was an emotional day.”
The moment @_jlove20 found out he was nominated for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. #WPMOYChallengepic.twitter.com/uIeTnNLe0m
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) December 4, 2025
Love grew up in Westchester, Illinois, and graduated from Nazareth Academy in the Chicago suburbs, 18 miles west of where Payton became a Hall-of-Fame running back with the Bears from 1975-87. Love starred in college at Notre Dame. That campus is an hour and half the other way, east of Chicago.
“It’s a really big honor,” Love said. “Obviously, with the name attached to it, Walter Payton. I’m from Chicago. It hits real close to home, the impact that he had on the city I was growing up in, on and off the field.
“Anything with his name attached to it is incredibly special.
“It’s an award, but it’s just cool to, you know, be able to make an impact on the community.”
Love has done that. Hugely.
Julian Love’s involvement
Love sponsors tuition scholarships for students back home at his alma mater, Nazareth Academy.
He has donated $25,000 to buy essentials, clothing, and appliances for kids in need at Boys & Girls Clubs.
Love has handed out coats and winter-weather gear to more than 300 children at the Seattle YMCA.
Last month he partnered with Down to Earth Cuisine to provide then serve a Thanksgiving meal for 150 children at the Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue, just up the freeway from Seahawks headquarters.
Last year his annual Julian Love Youth Football Camp back home in the Chicago area had more than 400 participants. He didn’t charge anyone a dime. At that camp he donated $40,000 in gear and resources. He’s partnered with Dick’s Sporting Goods to host a back-to-school shopping event for underserved youth.
He’s given $40,000 and joined with Safeway to provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to Washington families.
Love supports Every Mom Chicago. That’s a nonprofit for newborn, postpartum, and nursing essentials to mothers in underserved Chicagoland communities.
Love is a legacy board member of Weish4ever, the Andrew Weishar Foundation that gives financial assistance to uplift adolescents and young adults fighting cancer. Love has participated in the Seahawks’ Red Cross Blood Drive the past two years.
This summer, he thrilled a little girl in Green Bay by borrowing her tiny bike to ride it to the Seahawks’ joint practice with the Packers.
Oh, and he also plays football. He’s done that at a Pro Bowl level in the back of coach Mike Macdonald’s top-ranked defense.
Just not lately.
Now that he’s back practicing, will he play Sunday at Atlanta?
Love’s been in the league a day or three. He coyly played the competitive-advantage angle with the Falcons across the country.
“There’s a plan,” he said. “I don’t know if I can say that, but there’s a plan in place to get for me to get ramped up.”
Julian Love’s impetus for giving
Love thanks his wife, his high-school sweetheart, for getting him connected with the organizations that mean the most to them.
“A few years ago my wife and I sat down, and we had a talk about how we wanted to be more of service, and just the buckets (of issues) that were important to us, that we’re passionate about,” he said.
He listed them.
“The first is motherhood, especially postpartum,” he said.
Love stayed back from the Seahawks’ flight to Nashville for a game at Tennessee on Christmas Eve 2023, for Noah’s birth. He took a separate flight to re-join his team in time to play that day against the Titans.
Then he flew home to a new home life he and his wife found extraordinarily difficult.
It opened their eyes. Wide.
“With all the resources in the world, we didn’t expect it would be as difficult as it was after the baby was here. With all the resources, we couldn’t even imagine people without any of the resources that we had,” Love said. “That’s one of the buckets, motherhood.
“And then kids, babies, the teenage years, and my youth camps. More than just giving resources and giving money out, I think it’s important that I’m present. As a kid, I looked up to (Charles) Peanut Tillman, (Brian) Urlacher (Bears legends), and all those guys who were out in the community. They were superheroes to me, and so I feel like I just have to give something back, whether it’s asking and answering questions or just having conversations with kids, it’s important to me.
“The third bucket,” Love said, “is food. Food insecurity is a serious deal, especially right now. So being able to eat healthy food and have access to it shouldn’t be a luxury.
“That’s our three main buckets that we try to focus on. We’ve done a bunch of events following those three guidelines.”
The motivation for working and giving comes from his home roots, specifically his father, Detraiter Love, a hotel manager at The Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.
“My dad worked super hard and rose the ranks in Chicago,” the younger Love said. “He was always willing to go the extra mile for the people next to him — whether it’s kids my age that didn’t have the best upbringing…they were always around. He painted a good picture of how you’re supposed to act.”
Love said his dad gave him advice he’s used in the community and on the field, since his Nazareth Academy days through Notre Dame, the New York Giants and, since his trade in the 2023, Seattle.
“He always just told me to act like you’ve been there before,” Love said. “Whether I’m scoring a touchdown or I’m out and about in high school hanging out with my friends, there’s a way to go about living life.
“As I’ve climbed the ranks, he’s hammered home that point of it’s bigger than you.
“I give a lot of credit to my dad.”
All Love does, all his Pops has inspired him to do, has made the Seahawks safety’s frustrating fall more rewarding.
Not just for him, for the many who benefits from all he does.
“The plans I’ve been making has been years in the making, in terms of the impact and the service I want to do in the community. It was an offseason thing, and I think everything just aligned,” Love said. “Obviously, it’s been tough being off the field for so long, but it’s allowed me to gain some appreciation and get into the community more. It’s all aligned for me.
“I’m grateful for my wife for helping me find some resources and finding some causes that we believe in, that we’re passionate about. It’s filled that void of not playing this season.”
