Normally, the event on the eve of the Super Bowl – a special two-hour prime-time award in which the league and the Associated Press nominate the annual prize winners and the Pro Football Hall of Fame class is announced – is a red event. carpet was filled with several of the league’s top stars dressed to the nines and fans cheering outside the venue when they arrived.
Instead, this year’s NFL Honors was produced in advance, airing on CBS on Saturday. Here are some of the highlights:
Notable award winners were Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who won the Associated Press MVP award for the third time in his career.
Rodgers winning this award was not surprising. The shock, however, came when he quietly announced in his acceptance speech that he was engaged.
But for whom? He didn’t reveal.
“It is an honor to win this award for the third time,” said Rodgers in the CBS broadcast. “2020 was definitely a crazy year full of many changes, growth, some incredible and memorable moments. One hundred and eighty consecutive days of having my hair shaved. And I’m playing for, you know, few fans or no support the whole season. I got engaged and played the best football of my career. “
In his thanks, Rodgers included his teammates, the Packers technical team, his unidentified fiancee – and he even named Jodie Foster.
Alex Smith wins return player of the year
In addition, Washington Football Team quarterback Alex Smith, who needed 17 surgeries after suffering a life-threatening leg injury, won the player of the year return to AP honors.
Smith suffered a devastating injury after being fired from the Houston Texans in November 2018 and suffered a spiral fracture and an open fracture in his right tibia and fibula. He fought for his life after contracting sepsis – the body’s reaction to a life-threatening infection – and almost had to amputate his leg.
“Obviously, a lot of anxiety and potential doubts about how my leg will behave, to an incredible wave of emotion, excitement, that feeling of going out and playing again, I never thought I would get it back,” Smith said.
Peyton Manning, Charles Woodson and Calvin Johnson in the first Hall of Fame vote
Peyton Manning is the only full-back to have won the Super Bowl with two different franchises – although he could win some company as early as Sunday if Tom Brady and the Buccaneers win the Super Bowl LV.
Manning has now done something that Brady will probably do one day: he was elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Also entering their first year of voting are cornerback / safety Charles Woodson and wide receiver Calvin Johnson. The rest of the 2021 class is safety John Lynch, striker Alan Faneca, wide receiver Drew Pearson, coach Tom Flores and contributor Bill Nunn.
At the time of his retirement, Manning held NFL records in career passing yards (71,940), career passing touchdowns (539) and consecutive seasons with at least 25 passing touchdowns (13). He has received Pro Bowl honors 14 times and has been voted the most valuable player in the league five times.
Earlier this week, Brady said that Manning “was someone I always admired only as a defender, as a team leader.”
“I always admired Peyton because he was a little older than me and he always did things the right way,” said Brady on Wednesday. “His team has always been there. I know our teams had a rivalry with each other. When you played against a team led by Peyton Manning, you were going against (one of the best teams) in the league. It is no surprise that he would be the first Hall of Fame voter. An incredible player. “
‘You are giving me a chance at immortality’
Normally, in the host city of the Super Bowl, the Hall of Fame selection committee met and voted the day before the game. In previous years, several of the finalists were kidnapped in hotel rooms, waiting to see if they got “the beat” from the Professional Football Hall of Fame president, David Baker.
But because of the pandemic, the vote took place almost last month. And Baker traveled to the elected officials, knocking on several doors and, in the case of Woodson, surprising him outside, since he was with a film crew being interviewed. Manning was surprised by Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado.
“I promise I will live up to what the Hall of Fame is and now you are giving me a chance at immortality,” said an emotional Pearson to Baker.
The Professional Football Hall of Fame 2021 class will be consecrated on August 8 in Canton, Ohio. The 2020 class ceremony, which was postponed last year because of the pandemic, will take place on August 7.