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The NFL got all dressed up on Thursday night for its version of the football prom — a chance to walk the red carpet, have a little fun, and celebrate itself by doing everything but officially crowning a king.
Hopefully, when they do crown that king on Sunday night in Super Bowl LX, it’ll have a little bit more drama than the NFL awards show had. Most of the winners were the obvious, chalk choices. The only big shocker, really, was the Hall of Fame announcement — though even part of that had been known for days.
There were still a few awards worth discussing, though. So here are my four takeaways from the NFL Honors show:
1. A close call? Come on, Matthew Stafford should have been the easiest MVP choice in years
How in the world was this the closest MVP vote since Peyton Manning and Steve McNair were co-winners in 2003?
I thought Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was going to run away with this award, and really, he probably should have. He threw for 4,707 yards — nearly 1,000 more than he had a year ago. He had a career-high 46 touchdown passes (up from 20 one year ago) with just eight interceptions. He was brilliant from start to finish and nobody was really close.
Yet Stafford only edged Patriots quarterback Drake Maye 366 points to 361, and 24 first-place votes to 23. That’s shocking, really. Even more shocking, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert got one first-place vote — a vote that would’ve put Maye over the top if it had gone to him instead.
When I saw that, by the way, I assumed there had to be another Justin Herbert in the league. Or that maybe the voter just misspelled “Josh Allen.” I honestly can’t think of a reason why Herbert would get even a top-five vote for MVP.
Anyway, don’t get me wrong. Maye was great too, throwing for 4,394 yards with 31 touchdowns and eight interceptions. But he was a clear runner-up to Stafford. I can only assume that voters looked at the surrounding cast and decided that Maye had a lot less help around him. Maybe that’s true, and it would’ve mattered a lot more if the numbers were close. But they really weren’t.
Stafford’s season, honestly, was a miracle — especially when you consider it began with him having a mysterious back injury during training camp, and the fact that he’s 37 years old. Maye was great. He was a deserving runner-up. He probably earned himself a few first-place votes, too.
But this vote just shouldn’t have been that close.
2. The Coach of the Year ballot was stacked, but it was also incomplete.
Mike Vrabel — or Mike “Verbal”, as presenter Tiffany Haddish kept calling him — took over a New England Patriots team that went 4-13 a year ago and he turned them into a 14-3 juggernaut that will play in Super Bowl LX on Sunday night. Never mind that they had a cartoonishly soft schedule this season and got every break imaginable. The turnaround was still remarkable, and he was a deserving Coach of the Year.
But wow, did he have competition. Two other first-year coaches engineered remarkable turnarounds, too. Liam Coen had the Jaguars at 13-4, one year after going 3-14. And Ben Johnson revived the Bears with an 11-6 record, one year after they went 5-12. Mike Maccdonald didn’t have the same kind of turnaround in Seattle, but he masterfully led the Seahawks to a 14-3 record and the No. 1 seed in the NFC. And Kyle Shanahan held the 49ers together with string and duct tape and they still went 12-6.
The ballot was so loaded that there was a glaring omission. How could Sean Payton, who led the Broncos to a 14-3 record and the No. 1 seed in the AFC, not make the top five? Considering they went 12-3 in one-score games (including the playoffs), you better believe coaching had a lot to do with their run, which probably would’ve ended in the Super Bowl if quarterback Bo Nix hadn’t fractured his ankle and missed the AFC Championship Game.
3. If the MVP is going to keep going to QBs, they shouldn’t be candidates for Offensive Player of the Year
Thankfully, a non-quarterback won this award — Seattle WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba. And he was well deserved of the award. But Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was a finalist and got five first-place votes. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, the NFL MVP, got three first-place votes. And Bills QB Josh Allen got one.
It’s pretty ridiculous double-dipping, when you think about it. Quarterbacks have an absolute monopoly on the MVP award. They’ve now won it 13 straight times and 18 times in the last 19 years. Quarterbacks were four of the five finalists this year, which is pretty much the norm. Christian McCaffrey was just a token non-passer.
I get it. It’s understandable. Quarterback is the hardest position to play in all of sports and the most important. It is virtually impossible for an NFL team to win these days without a quarterback playing at an elite level. So just make the MVP a quarterback award and let everyone fight it out for the OPOY.
Most of the voters seem to get that other offensive players should have a chance to take home a trophy. This was the seventh straight year that a non-quarterback won this award. But it’s time the NFL took the quarterbacks out of the equation entirely, especially if the voters are going to keep giving them MVPs.
4. Bill Belichick broke the Hall of Fame
OK, it wasn’t his fault. It was his presence. And we may never know exactly why, but the fact that the select and secret voters committee omitted him is a stain on the Class of 2026. And it’s especially bad now that we know it wasn’t as much about the process as many voters led us to believe.
The prevailing theory — and explanation by some — was that Belichick was caught in a broken system, where he was lumped in with three “senior” candidates and one “contributor” and voters could only select three from that five-man group. But it turns out the voters only selected one from that group — senior candidate (and former 49ers running back) Roger Craig.
So there was plenty of room for them to vote for Belichick. But apparently at least 11 of them just didn’t.
Whatever their reasons — Spygate, his gruff demeanor, his rough relationship with local New England media — is just an excuse for an inexcusable omission. The man won six Super Bowls, 333 total games, and built a franchise that dominated for nearly two decades.
With all due respect to the chosen five — Craig, Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly and Adam Vinatieri — that’s the story. Belichick should be on the stage with them. The fact that he’s not is an embarrassment that will overshadow all of them, all the way to Canton this summer.
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