New England Patriots' Tom Brady was named the 2011 AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year Tuesday night, the second time the quarterback has won the award in his career. Brady was both the AP Offensive Player of the Year and MVP for the 2007 season.
Brady totaled 21 votes in this season's voting, easily beating out the Philadelphia Eagles' Michael Vick, who finished second, with 11 votes. Pats Pulpit is surprised Brady did win by a bigger margin:
I was actually very surprised that Brady did not win by more votes. I understood that Vick, Rivers and Foster could get votes, and I probably should have mentioned Rodgers. However, Brady didn't even get half of the votes, despite his record setting season and his near flawless overall performance at quarterback during the regular season. Oh well- I'm sure Brady would trade this award for another crack at the Jets.
Indeed, individual awards are likely little consolation for a season that ended all too early with a Divisional Round loss to the New York Jets.
Brady finished the 2010 season with 3900 yards and an NFL-leading 36 touchdowns (while throwing just four interceptions). He led the Patriots to the best regular season mark in the NFL (14-2). And he did it all while playing the season with a stress fracture in his foot that only got worse as the season progressed.
"It's just something that's been lingering a little bit," Brady said on NFL Network's "NFL Total Access" after the award was announced. "But over the course of the season, a lot of players throughout the league, a lot of players on our team, deal with these type of injuries. I think part of having a little bit of mental toughness is putting those thoughts aside and still going out and trying to perform your best each week."
After the announcement, Brady was quick to give credit to his teammates.
"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, according to The Associated Press. "My only disappointment is that we couldn't 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."
He added that the team's success was thanks to "a collective effort by the group of skill players that we have and the offensive line."
This likely makes Brady the favorite to take home his second Most Valuable Player award, which will be announced Sunday.