By Alan Robinson

Published: Thursday, January 31, 2013, 6:28 p.m.
Updated: Friday, February 1, 2013

NEW ORLEANS — Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch was chosen Thursday as the winner of the Byron “Whizzer” White award presented by the players' union for hometown community service.

The NFL Players Association will donate $100,000 to Batch's Best of the Batch Foundation in recognition of the award, which has been given each year since 1967 and has been won by four Steelers.

Previous Steelers winners were Andy Russell, 1973; Rocky Bleier, 1975; and Franco Harris, 1982.

Batch thanked the Steelers organization and owners Dan and Art Rooney II for supporting him in his charitable work, which includes a summertime youth basketball league in which hundreds participate.

The award is the highest bestowed upon a player by the NFLPA and is named for the former Supreme Court justice who once played for the Steelers.

Batch began the foundation after his teenage sister, Danyl Settles, was shot to death while caught in Homestead gang warfare crossfire in 1996. A friend she was talking to at the time used her as a shield when gunfire broke out in an alley. No one was convicted for the crime.

“At that moment, I said if I was ever in a position to give back, I would,” Batch said.

Alan Robinson is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at arobinson@tribweb.com or via Twitter @arobinson_Trib.

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