New England’s Tom Brady Win MVP Award for Third Time

The NFL Honors took place on Saturday night, and for the third time, it saw Tom Brady taking home the award for Most Valuable Player. As New England prepares for today’s Super Bowl and potentially its sixth title, it could see Brady chasing down his fifth NFL Championship.

Brady’s won his first MVP award in 2007 and his second in 2010. Joining the New England quarterback as honoree’s was three from the Los Angeles Rams; Todd Gurley as Offensive Player of the Year, Aaron Donald as Defensive Player of the Year and Sean McVay winning Coach of the Year.

Voting for the NFL honours is carried out by fifty members from the media who are regular reporters on the league. Other notable winners last night included New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara as Top Offensive Rookie, New Orleans corner back Marshon Lattimore as top defensive rookie; Pat Shurmur, as Assistant Coach of the Year and the Chargers Keenan Allen as Comeback Player.
Brady, who is now 40 years old, is the second player in major sports to win a Most Valuable Player award. The only other to achieve this was in 2004 when Barry Bonds won for his efforts in the MLB.

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are in the midst of preparing for the Super Bowl, and this prevented Brady from attending last night’s awards. Teammate Julian Edelman, who plays wide receiver for the Patriots and was out all season due to an injury to his knee was tasked with the job of accepting the award on Brady’s behalf.

Said Edelman,

“”Thanks, thanks. Wait up. I literally just found out I was doing this like 20 minutes ago. So, I’ve got to read the text.”

Edelman continued saying,

“No, but I’m joking. But serious, Tom said he wanted to say he’s very honoured and humbled that he gets this award for MVP. Also, he wanted to thank his teammates, his friends, his family and the Patriots organization for going out and doing what they do.”

A large part of Brady winning the award came as a result of his success rate, which was 66.2%, with the quarterback completing 385 passes out of 581. This earned him 4,577 yards on the field and saw 32 touchdowns scored. That success rate saw the Patriots going 13-3, and at a time when most quarterbacks are already retired, Brady is still performing above much younger quarterbacks.

Defensive Player of the Year, Aaron Donald, was the only other defensive tackle to win MVP since 1999 when Warren Sapp won. For Donald, he said that the award meant everything to him.

“That’s one of the best to ever do it. So, even for my name to be next to that guy’s name is beyond a blessing. This is what you dream about as a kid, dreaming about playing in the NFL to have success like this, to be able to (play good enough) to win this trophy.”

Offensive Player of the Year Todd Gurley saw his season change for the good as he scored thirteen touchdowns and six touchdown passes and helping Los Angeles win the NFC West.

Commenting, Gurley said,

“The Saints got the rookies and we took home the offensive and defensive player awards. It just tells you the type of players we have on the team. We all help each other out. We have some talent, but we’re nothing without the whole nine yards and everybody together. And we also have a coach who’s up for Coach of the Year.”

For Coach of the Year, Sean McVay, it was his first year as head coach and one that saw him being the youngest in the history of the NFL to earn the top coaching position. He earned an impressive thirty-five votes of the fifty placed.

For the Rams, it is not the first team to have won three top awards at the HFL Honors. The Baltimore Ravens also earned the prestige in 2003 when Terrell Suggs, Jamal Lewis, and Ray Lewis were awarded Defensive Rookie of the Year, Best Offensive Player of the Year, Top Defensive Player of the Year respectively. The Saint Louis Rams also saw its share of success in 1999 with three of its players earning top honours. That saw Dick Vermeil as Coach of the Year, Marshall Faulk being named Offensive Player of the Year, and Kurt Warner as Most Valuable Player and