Who deserves to have trophies named after them when it comes to NFL greats?
This week the NBA announced that it’s renaming its end of season awards to honor some of the greatest to ever play the game. The league MVP will now win the “Michael Jordan Trophy,” Defensive Player of the Year will win the “Hakeem Olajuwon trophy, and a newly minted “Clutch Player of the Year” is styled after Jerry West. It’s an incredible way to honor those who shaped the game, and might prompt younger basketball fans to look up videos of how amazing these players were, when they otherwise might not.
When it comes to the NFL the end of season awards are, well, bad. Don’t get me wrong, they’re functionally fine — but utterly forgettable. We all know who the MVP was from the prior season, but can you honestly tell me that you know what the trophy looks like? Think for a second. Here it is, because I absolutely couldn’t remember what the thing looked like until I googled it this morning.
Compare to the NBA, who get GOLD MICHAEL JORDAN DUNKING A CRYSTAL BASKETBALL!
There’s already precedent for the NFL to name awards after players with the Walter Payton Man of the Year, which should obviously remain unchanged — but it’s time to honor the past greats and revamp these trophies.
AP Most Valuable Player: The Joe Montana Trophy
If we had this discussion a decade from now this would be the Tom Brady Trophy, but for now Montana is the personification of excellence. Montana may have not ranked in the Top 3 in pass yards in each of his seasons, but nobody in the league matched his ruthless efficiency.
Take 1989, for instance. Montana ranked 8th in passing yards, but he blew the rest of the league out of the water with his 70.2 percent completion percentage. This was an era where only four other starting quarterbacks managed to complete over 60 percent of their passes, let alone 70 percent. The West Coast Offense was a big part of that, but Montana also threw 26 touchdowns to only 8 interceptions at a time where running was king, and went on to embarrass the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV when he threw five touchdowns en route to a 55-10 blowout win over John Elway.
There is no doubt in my mind Montana is the right man to be honored on the MVP award.
AP Coach of the Year: The John Madden Trophy
There are so many incredibly worthwhile coaches who deserve to be on a Coach of the Year award, and honestly, I feel a little weird not naming this after Tom Landry, Chuck Noll or Bill Walsh. That said, nobody is more synonymous with football coaching outside of Vince Lombardi than John Madden.
With Madden’s passing in 2021 there’s no better time to acknowledge one of the all-time legends of football Xs and Os, and a man who legitimately could have broken every NFL coaching record in existence if he chose to stay with the Raiders instead of stepping away from the sideline in 1978, when he was only 42.
Nobody needs to be reminded of John Madden, we get it every single year with the video game release — but I think tying his name to something with a little more prestige would be a wonderful way to honor his memory.
AP Comeback Player of the Year Award: The Randy Moss Trophy
Here me out on this one. Everyone remembers Randy Moss’ dominance in Minnesota, but it’s pretty easy to forget that everyone had more or less written him off in the mid-2000s, and by 2006 people thought he was done.
From 2004-06 Moss missed the Pro Bowl three straight times, after being a fixture throughout his early career. Unhappy in Oakland, he turned in his worst NFL season, finishing with a paltry 553 yards and three touchdowns.
Then, ahead of the 2007 draft, Moss was dealt to New England for a fourth round pick. The expectation was that he’d round out the receiving corps and little more. Then Randy absolutely exploded in one of the most dominant receiving seasons in NFL history.
Moss finished 2007 with 1,493 receiving yards, and more importantly a mind-blowing 23 TDs. He cruised to win comeback player of the year and went on to have three more 1,000 yard seasons in his 30s. Nobody had a comeback from such a low, to such an astonishing high — which is why Moss is perfect for this award.
AP Offensive Player of the Year: The Barry Sanders Trophy
It’s Barry-freaking-Sanders, ‘nuff said. Seriously though, nobody personifies NFL offensive excellence at a non-QB position better than No. 20. Sanders dominated the league from the second he set foot in the Pontiac Silverdome in 1989, all the way to his early retirement in 1998 when he walked out on top.
A lack of longevity might push Sanders down the stats list of greatest RBs, but make no mistake: We have never seen anyone better, and more dominant than him. We often talk about how a passing game can open up lanes for a running back, but Sanders was so good he made Lions’ QB Scott Mitchell look like a damn superstar.
Teams had to stack the box to try and stop Sanders, and he’d still run all over them. Every single season of his career Sanders ran for over 1,000 yards. He went over 1,500 yards on four occasions, and over 2,000 once. The man AVERAGED 10.9 touchdowns a season as well. This is a no-brainer for me when it comes to who to pick to represent the offense’s best.
AP Defensive Player of the Year: The Reggie White Trophy
Reggie White was to defense what Barry Sanders was on offense: An unstoppable force from the season he began his career. In 15 seasons White failed to record double-digit sacks only three times. His 21.0 sack season in 1987 with the Eagles remains one of the greatest individual performances in league history, and it came at a time where nobody else in the league had over 12.5.
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When the dust settled White was named Defensive Player of the Year a total of five times. A power rushing wrecking ball whose “Hump Move” is still remembered and taught to this day.White is the perfect man to personify excellence by a defensive player.
Special Teams Player of the Year: The Ray Guy Trophy
This is a new award, because I think it’s wild we simply have no way to honor such a big phase of the game in the NFL.
Yes, there’s a Ray Guy trophy to honor the best punter in college football, but Guy left such an indelible mark on special teams that he deserves to be recognized at every level of football. Guy was such a dominant player out of college than the Raiders selected him with their first round pick of the 1973 NFL Draft — a first round pick … on a punter.
Guy’s skill at flipping the field was mind blowing. He averaged 42.4 yards-per-punt during his career, being a Top 5 staple every season he played the game. To compare, even with modern cleats, punting technology and refinement of the football punters only manage to get 5-10 more yards per punt than Guy did almost 50 years ago.
AP Offensive Rookie of the Year: The Gale Sayers Trophy
Knee injuries may have shortened Gale Sayers’ career, but my goodness did his star shine bright in a short period of time. Perhaps no season was more impactful than his rookie campaign in 1965, which was so dominant Sayers not only won rookie of the year, but was in the running for NFL MVP.
Sayers literally did everything for the Bears. He recorded 1,374 all-purpose yards, scored a combined 20 rushing and receiving touchdowns, he returned a kick for a touchdown — hell, he even returned a punt for a touchdown.
The most dangerous weapon in the NFL at the time, teams simply had no answer for Sayers’ versatility all over the field.
AP Defensive Rookie of the Year: The Night Train Lane Trophy
There have been some stunning NFL defensive rookie seasons over the years with Lawrence Taylor in 1981 and Javon Kearse in 1999 springing to mind, but what Night Train Lane did in 1952 for the Los Angeles Rams defies belief.
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Lane was a mammoth defensive back for the era, and used every bit of his 6’1 frame to record a mind-blowing 14 interceptions in his rookie season, running one back for a touchdown in the process. Not only did Night Train lead the league in interceptions, but he made turnovers a positional weapon — returning his picks for a total of 298 yards.
These numbers are astonishing, even during a high-interception era. That figure of 14 picks still stands today as the all-time NFL record, and it may never be eclipsed.
NFL Iron Man Award: The Jim Brown Trophy
Finally we’re throwing another new award in the mix to honor toughness and fortitude during a grueling NFL season.
I know this is conceptually subjective, but when it comes to grit and determination nobody matches Jim Brown. From 1957-65 he recorded an absurd 2,359 carries during a time where helmets and shoulder pads offered little protection.
Brown didn’t just play for nine seasons without ever missing a game, but his use rate was so absurdly high — and he did all this while leading the NFL in rushing in all but one of his pro seasons.
Sure, we’ve seen quarterbacks make more consecutive starts, but nobody at a high contact position who endured this much punishment has come close. Brown is the perfect man to be immortalized as a trophy and given to a player who was able to keep competing when everything in their body and mind told them to shut down.
