Wright became a minor celebrity in the mid-1970s when he wrote the irreverent memoir “I’d Rather Be Wright,” chronicling his misadventures on and off the field. In its frank assessment of what it was like to be an uncelebrated player on the Packers, the Giants and a handful of other teams, it was seen by some as football’s answer to Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four.”

And then there is the award. Johnny Unitas won the first Man of the Year award in 1970. Payton won the award in 1977, and the N.F.L. named it for him after his death in 1999. But the trophy never changed. The sculpture was created in 1969, by the artist Daniel Bennett Schwartz.

Schwartz, 83, said the N.F.L. executive David Boss gave him the commission because he was familiar with a Schwartz painting of Jim Brown that appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and a series of portraits he did of Baltimore Colts players.

In response to Boss’s commission, Schwartz sculptured what he called “The Gladiator,” a lineman standing with a cape draped across his shoulders.

“I decided to place it in the era that I grew up in,” Schwartz said.

He added: “Nobody expected a cape. Capes had been done away with. To me he looked like a Greek soldier or a gladiator.”