There is a bright spot after all in the Atlanta Falcons 2007 football season.

Warrick Dunn showed again that his qualities as a running back are exceeded by his reputation as a decent man. He won an award for philanthropy among NFL players.

CURTIS COMPTON/AJC (ENLARGE)

Falcons running back Warrick Dunn is one of the league's best, but he ran into a pack of defenders in this November 2007 game against Tampa Bay.

RENEE' HANNANS HENRY/AJC (ENLARGE)

Warrick Dunn gives Jacquelyn Williams , the grandmother of two, a check for the down payment for her new home in this November 2007 photo.

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A panel of judges and public votes selected Dunn among 17 football players competing for the inaugural Home Depot NFL Neighborhood MVP Award January 30. In Dunn's case, the award came with a $25,000 gift to the charity of his choice.

He chose the Warrick Dunn Foundation, which is a main reason the man who wears number 28 won the award in the first place.

His foundation has helped 74 single parents who have 192 children buy their first homes by giving them down payments and furnishings through his "Home for the Holidays" program. He started it his rookie season in 1997.

"Over the years, we've just helped so many different people who come from different situations and backgrounds, it's been great," Dunn said.

Great because he gets personally involved, makes the final selection and gets to see the difference it makes in the peoples' lives, he said.

Tiffany Miles, 29, met Dunn for the first time outside her new home in Duluth last November.

She, her two children and her younger brother were moving from an low-income apartment into a Habitat for Humanity home. Dunn provided $5,000 toward the home and furnished it, right down to new toothbrushes, Miles said.

"I spent the first night over there, and didn't have to bring anything but my clothes," she said.

"The kids have a sense of comfort, a sense of peace. They have their own rooms, can play in their own yard. It has changed our lives."

John Ross, vice president of advertising and marketing at Home Depot, said Dunn's passion and leadership and his portfolio of good works led to his winning the award.

The fact that Dunn plays in Home Depot's home town was just icing on the cake.

Ross said their research into the players in the running for the award showed him at time when many players end up in the news for bad acts, there are many who are community heroes.

Dunn is passionate about his foundation because of his experience as a teenager. In 1993, his mother, a Baton Rouge police officer and single mother, was killed.

"When my mom passed away, the whole city of Baton Rouge started a trust fund for us. That is how we survived. They did so much, they taught me how to give back and how to care for other people," Dunn said.

He and his family lived in a rental home. That is one reason he has a soft spot in his heart for helping single parents get homes of their own.

He set the foundation up with $400,000 and has gotten contributions and hosted fund-raisers that added nearly another $600,000.

He wants it to keep running after he quits running, he said.

"It sometimes cost $35,000 to $45,000 to furnish a home and for a down payment," Dunn said.

The foundation is not the only reason Dunn was selected for the prize. Just as on the gridiron, he is a multi-role player.

He showed up to help rebuild a neighborhood playground in Clarkston with KaBOOM! volunteers last year. He visited a seriously injured Gwinnett County high school football player, bringing along a signed jersey. Dunn has talked to middle school kids about sticking to their books.

He helped set up funds to help the children of two DeKalb County police officers killed in January. That tragedy struck home.

"It's something I've been through," he said of the Atlanta tragedies.