Tom Brady-Offensive Player of the Year Award
After failing to make waves in this year’s playoffs, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady received some sort of a consolation price after he was unanimously named as The Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
Brady, who won the award for the second time in four years after running away with it in 2007, edged out Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick for the award after getting the nod 21 of the 50 media members who were selected to vote for the award.
The 33-year-old quarterback, who had 36 passing touchdowns and only four interceptions, made huge waves this season after having 355 consecutive passes without being intercepted, making him believe that he really deserve the award more than his counterparts.
“To me it comes down to the mental toughness and determination of the players and coaches,” Brady said.
Despite having a disappointing playoff stint this year, the Patriots, led by Brady, had their share of the spotlight this season when they posted the league’s best record with 14 wins and only two defeats.
“I feel our team really grew together over the course of the season. It was a privilege to be a part of this team,” Brady said when asked about their performance this season. “My only disappointment is that we couldnt take advantage of our opportunity in the playoffs, but hopefully we learn from that and use it as motivation toward accomplishing our goals for next season.”
The 11-year-old veteran displayed his tremendous precision passing this season, tallying NFL-best 111 passing rating, and also led the league in touchdown-to-interception differential. The Michigan product also wounded up second in complete percentage with his 65.9 percent, 0.1 lower than first-place Philip Rivers of San Diego.
Brady, who had a lot of success in his 11-year NFL career, said that his experience helped him bag the award this season.
“Ive been here for a while, so Ive seen our offense evolve,” said Brady, who has spent his entire playing career with the Patriots. “We do some different things now than weve done in the past. Ultimately were still trying to do the same thing, which is be productive and win games.”
Patriots’ receiver Deion Branch wasn’t surprised after learning that his teammate bagged the award, saying that Brady worked hard enough for him to unsurprisingly be the hands down choice for the Offensive Player of the Year plum
“Tom studies a lot,” said Branch, who was the Most Valuable Player of the Super Bowl 2005. “We get the bulk of it in the meeting rooms with just the players when we sit down to go over the things that hes been looking at. It carries over to the practice field as well. Tom is a dork when it comes to that, so Im going to leave that alone, but Tom is a dork in that meeting room.”
Brady, who was the 199th pick in the 2000 Draft, is now the only active player to win the Offensive Player of the Year twice.
The award’s second placer Vick, who also had an outstanding season with his 21 touchdown passes with only six interceptions, got 11 votes, while running back Arian Foster of the Houston Texans received seven votes. Phillip Rivers had five votes, while Atlanta’s Roddy White, Philadelphia’s DeSean Jackson, and Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers had two votes each. www.sportsbook.com is the home of NFL betting.