Jahlani Tavai is one of the longest tenured players on the New England Patriots, and this season he's seen more success than ever before in his seven-year NFL career.
He's also overcome more adversity than in any other year. For that, the linebacker was named the Patriots' Ed Block Courage Award recipient for 2025.
The Ed Block Courage Award is annually given to a player from every NFL club who exemplifies the principles of courage and sportsmanship while also serving as a symbol of professionalism and dedication. Often, its winners have overcome significant injury or tragedies in their personal lives.
Unfortunately, Tavai experienced both.
"Jahlani Tavai epitomizes courage," Patriots Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance/Head Athletic Trainer Jim Whalen said in the team's announcement.
"Jahlani had an offseason hampered with soft tissue injuries and missed quite a bit of time during training camp. During his recovery, he developed an extremely rare autoimmune disease which required multiple physician's visits with numerous specialists and a rigorous regimen of daily and weekly medications with various side effects."After sustaining a calf injury in the spring, Tavai was placed on team's injured reserve list and missed the first four games.
He was activated in October before a win against the Buffalo Bills, but then missed a Week 12 victory against the Cincinnati Bengals due to a family emergency. The Patriots rallied around their teammate in the win and called Tavai from the locker room after the game.
"Had some soft tissue stuff, came back for training camp, was ready and then blew out another soft tissue and had another setback," said Tavai.
"While having those injuries, I found out I had an autoimmune disease in my head which kind of put some fear in my head and for my family, so luckily we were able to get on top of that and I'm still kicking right now. Then, [I] had some off-the-field stuff with my family that I needed to take care of. But the biggest thing for me was being thankful for all the help we have. I think I'm more appreciative of the guys in this locker room and the staff for just the help that they've given me. So, I'm more grateful for that than I am about the award."
Experiencing his third head coaching change in as many seasons, Tavai also faced the challenge of making an impression on Mike Vrabel."The biggest thing for me is I had to just control what I could and that was just getting healthy," Tavai told Patriots.com in Week 18.
"When my opportunity to get back on the field comes, just take full advantage. You face ups and downs in life and you just have to treat it the same way."
The Ed Block Courage Award is named after Ed Block, a long-time head athletic trainer for the Baltimore Colts and a respected humanitarian dedicated to helping children.
Past recipients include David Andrews, Devin McCourty, James White, Julian Edelman, Matthew Slater, Rob Gronkowski, and Tom Brady.
Tavai is the latest on that list, and he'll be honored at the 48th Ed Block Courage Awards Banquet in Baltimore on March 7, 2026, along with winners from the NFL's 31 other teams,.
"Throughout his entire recovery, Jahlani remained upbeat and worked hard every day," Whalen said.
"Eventually he worked his way back into the lineup and was an integral part of the team's success. It is with great pride and admiration that we honor Jahlani with this award."
