The AP has presented an award recognizing the NFL's top player since 1957. The award is voted upon by a panel of 50 sportswriters at the end of the
regular season, before the
playoffs, though the results are not announced to the public until the day before the
Super Bowl. The sportswriters chosen regularly follow the NFL, and remain mostly consistent from year to year. They are chosen based on expertise and are independent of the league itself.[5] Voters for the award have included
Troy Aikman of
Fox Sports;
Cris Collinsworth and
Tony Dungy of
NBC Sports; and
Herm Edwards of
ESPN.[5] Only two players in the history of the award have won it unanimously:
New England Patriots quarterback
Tom Brady in
2010 and
Baltimore Ravens quarterback
Lamar Jackson in
2019.[6]
Due to voters' tendency to favor offensive positions (mostly the quarterback and sometimes the running back),[7][8][9][10] the award has been overwhelmingly dominated by offensive players; of the 57 undisputed winners, 54 played an offensive position: 38 quarterbacks and 16
running backs. Two defensive players have won the award:
Alan Page in 1971 as a
defensive tackle, and
Lawrence Taylor as a
linebacker in 1986. The sole
special teams player to be named AP NFL MVP was
Mark Moseley, who won as a
placekicker in 1982.[11]
Thirteen awardees also won the
Super Bowl (or
NFL Championship Game prior to 1966) in the same season. However, this did not occur from 2000 to 2022. During that span, nine AP NFL MVPs have led their team to the Super Bowl and were defeated each time.[12] This has led to tongue-in-cheek claims in recent years that there is a "curse" preventing the awardee's team from winning the Super Bowl.[13][14]
The
Green Bay Packers have the most overall winners with ten; if including disputed awards (see below), the Colts would be tied with ten. The Green Bay Packers also have the most unique winners with five players winning the award.
Discrepancies
The AP has presented an award recognizing the NFL's top player since the 1957 season,[5][15] although the pre-1961 awardees are recognized in the Official NFL Record and Fact Book as winning the AP's "NFL Most Outstanding Player Award",[11][16] and the 1962 winner was recognized as the AP's "Player of the Year".[17][18] The AP considers 1961 to be the first year in which it presented a "Most Valuable Player" award.[17][19][20] Thus there are numerous inconsistencies among sources regarding each of the first four awards, and whether or not the winners are included in the overall list of AP MVP winners at all. The discrepancies include 1958's winner being either
Jim Brown or
Gino Marchetti; the 1959 winner as
Johnny Unitas or
Charlie Conerly; and whether or not
Norm Van Brocklin shared the award in 1960 with
Joe Schmidt.[17]
^Beginning with the 2023 season, AP voters began filling out a ranked MVP ballot of five players. Jackson received 49 first-place votes and one third-place vote, for a total of 493 out of 500 potential points.[90]
Gellerman, Jacob; Drexler, Sam; Marini, Matt; Cocchiaro, Nicolas; Zerkel, Alex, eds. (2016).
2018 Official NFL Record and Fact Book(PDF). National Football League. pp. 522–523. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
^Thomas, Jim (January 10, 2002).
"Warner is in hunt for another NFL honor". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 20. Retrieved February 2, 2017 – via Newspapers.com. The Associated Press MVP award is the most prestigious, but it's only Round 1 when it comes to NFL player-of-the-year awards.
^
abLee, Brenden; Gellerman, Jacob; King, Robert, eds. (2015).
2015 Official NFL Record and Fact Book(PDF). National Football League. p. 524. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
^Garven, Rich (December 18, 2016).
"Strong showing in Denver should bolster Brady for MVP". The Providence Journal. Retrieved February 1, 2017. Including the four years prior to 1961 when it was known as the Most Outstanding Player award...
^
abcTurney, John (January 11, 2010).
"AP gets it partially right". Pro Football Weekly. Archived from the original on December 16, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2017.{{
cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link)
^Pelissero, Tom (December 22, 2016).
"Who's the NFL MVP: Our sampling of executives gives Ezekiel Elliott the edge". USA Today. Retrieved February 1, 2017. Fifty media members (I'm one of them) will vote by Jan. 4 for awards given out by The Associated Press, which began awarding the MVP in 1961 and has never given it to a rookie. (Cleveland Browns fullback Jim Brown did win what was then called NFL Player of the Year in his rookie year in 1957.)
^
abHand, Jack (December 15, 1966).
"Bart Starr Most Valuable Player". The Morning Record. Associated Press. p. 9. Retrieved August 3, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
^Swanson, Merrill (January 8, 1972).
"Vikings' Page takes the cake". Star Tribune. p. 17. Retrieved January 31, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Larry Brown 'Most Valuable'". Garden City Telegram. Associated Press. January 8, 1973. p. 2. Retrieved January 31, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^Bock, Hal (January 9, 1975).
"Stabler Most Valuable". The Corbin Times-Tribune. Associated Press. p. 3. Retrieved January 31, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^Melvin, Chuck (January 7, 1981).
"Sipe caught off guard by MVP award". Reno Gazette-Journal. Associated Press. p. 27. Retrieved February 1, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Marino Honored As Most Valuable". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Associated Press. December 22, 1984. p. 15. Retrieved February 1, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Taylor wins awards". Star-News. December 31, 1986. p. 2B. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
^Babineau, Jeff (January 11, 1994).
"Emmitt Is Most Valuable". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved February 1, 2017.
^Wilner, Barry (January 4, 1995).
"49er QB Young is NFL MVP". Da Kalb Daily Chronicle. Associated Press. p. 11. Retrieved February 11, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.