Manning finds the last empty spot on his trophy case.
What do you give to the man who already has everything? How about a Comeback Player of the Year Award?
Right now, the choice for AP Comeback Player of the Year is a two-horse race between Peyton Manning and Adrian Peterson. If Manning wins the award, it will put him in pretty rare territory: he’d be just the fourth player to, over the course of a career, be named by the Associated Press as the Most Valuable Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, and Super Bowl MVP. Can you name the first three?
Below is one hint for each of the three players who have won all three awards.
In between winning a Super Bowl MVP and the MVP award, this player suffered a ruptured disk in his back that was supposed to end his season and perhaps his career; he came back two months later and played well enough to win the AP Comeback Player of the Year award.
Joe Montana was a Super Bowl MVP in ’81, ’84, and ’89, and he was named the game’s Most Valuable Player in 1989. But in the middle of his career, he pulled off one of his greatest tricks, winning Comeback Player of the Year award in the same year he was injured.
This guy is the king of hardware. He has an MVP, a Super Bowl MVP, a Comeback Player of the Year…. and an AP Offensive Player of the Year award, an AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award, and a Heisman Trophy. That’s one full trophy case.
Marcus Allen may not have been the best player of all time but it’s hard to find a more decorated one. He became the first collegiate player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season and won the Heisman Trophy in 1981 at USC. The next year he won the Rookie of the Year award, and two years later he picked up a Super Bowl MVP award. Two years after that he was named the AP’s MVP, and then eight years later — in his first year out of Al Davis’ grasp — he was named the AP Comeback Player of the Year while playing with the Chiefs and leading the NFL in rushing touchdowns.
Yards per Attempt is the basic statistic around which the passing game should be measured. It forms the base of my favorite predictive statistic (Net Yards per Attempt) and my favorite explanatory statistic (Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt). But it’s not perfect. In theory, Yards per Attempt is a system-neutral metric. If you play in […]
Consider the following example. The Colts gain possession at the 20-yard line. Andrew Luck is in shotgun and throws a strike to Reggie Wayne, who catches it at the 30, runs 15 yards, and gets tackled at the 45-yard line. Luck gets credited with 25 passing yards and Wayne records 25 receiving yards. Wayne is […]
Over at Footballguys.com, I look at a different method to project receiving yards. The number of receiving yards a player produces is the result of a large number of variables. Some of them, like the receiver’s ability, are pretty consistent from year to year. But other factors are less reliable, or less “sticky” from year […]
On June 15, 2012, I launched Football Perspective. Since that day, Football Perspective has posted a new article every single day. This the site’s 445th post, so I won’t blame you if you’ve missed an article here or there. At the top of every page is a link to the Historical Archive, a page that […]
Football Perspective turns one tomorrow. To celebrate, Doug Drinen has come up with a contest centered around the following picture. Question 1: Explain what this is a picture of. Question 2: Make a case to your real or hypothetical significant other that this is worthy of being printed, framed, and hung on your wall. GRAND […]
#10: Tie: Mike Williams – linebacker, 1986 (Pittsburgh); Michael Williams – tight end, 2013-current (Detroit) Nine Mike Williamses have played in the NFL. A Tulsa linebacker of the same name was drafted by the Steelers in the 12th round of the 1986 Draft but never appeared in a game. In April, the Lions selected Alabama […]
Back in 2006, Doug Drinen came up with the Dungy Index, a way to measure a coach’s performance in the regular season relative to expectations. Because Doug understands regression to the mean, he was impressed by Tony Dungy’s ability to continue to string together 12-win seasons year after year.1 But Doug didn’t want to just […]
Entire books have been written about the West Coast Offense. Friend of the program Chris Brown has an excellent primer on some of the principles of the system. Due to time constraints, this post is not going to dissect a voluminous playbook, translate Spider 3 Y Banana into English, or discuss the role of motions […]
The Simple Rating System is a set of computer rankings focused on only two variables: strength of schedule and margin of victory. I published weekly college football SRS ratings each week last season, and you can read more about the SRS there. Last month, Jason Lisk of the Big Lead took the Las Vegas point […]
When I ask a question in the title of a post, I usually have an answer. But not this time. From 2000 to 2012, 163 different quarterbacks started 16 games. I thought it might be interesting to check out their splits based on the Game Script of each game. I grouped each quarterback’s statistics in […]
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Dang, can’t believe I didn’t get #3.
There were only 3 players to win the Heisman and Super Bowl MVP. I stopped at Jim Plunkett, and thought he might have had a comeback award.
Jim Plunkett
Marcus Allen
Desmond Howard
Well, I went zero for three on this one. I pay no attention at all to Super Bowl MVP, but I still should have gotten at least the first one.
Well I knew Brady. For some reason I could have swore Namath would have had all 3, no idea why
Well, it’s official: Peyton Manning won the AP Comeback Player of the Year award.
I can’t beleive I got Montana right away, but couldn’t think of Brady even with the hint….