National Football League Rookie of the Year Award

The National Football League Rookie of the Year Award (NFL ROTY) refers to any number of awards presented by various entities to the top American football rookie(s) in the National Football League (NFL).

Associated Press NFL ROTY Award
The AP NFL Rookie of the Year award is an annual award given since 1967 to the top offensive and defensive rookie players in the NFL. Winners are selected by a nationwide panel of 50 members of the Associated Press who regularly cover the league. Ballots are cast at the end of the regular season, before the playoffs. Since 2011, winners of the AP Rookie of the Year awards are announced at the NFL Honors show the night before the Super Bowl along with the Pepsi Rookie of the Year award.

Trivia

 * Players from the University of Miami and USC have won the award the most times (six).
 * The Detroit Lions have won the most Rookie of the Year awards (7). Detroit has won four offensive ROTYs and three defensive ROTYs.
 * Running backs have won 30 out of 44 Offensive ROTY awards, or 68%.
 * Linebackers have won nearly half of the Defensive ROTY awards (21 out of 43)
 * Only seven quarterbacks have won the award, and none from 1971 to 2003.
 * The Eagles, and the Jaguars are the only franchises to never have a player win either award.
 * 1967 marked the only year that one team won both awards, as the Lions took home the Offensive (Mel Farr) and Defensive (Lem Barney) trophies.
 * Buddy Curry & Al Richardson are the only co-winners; both Atlanta Falcons linebackers won the 1980 Defensive ROTY award.
 * Fourteen players who have won the ROTY award are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
 * Six first overall draft picks have won the ROTY award (All Offensive).
 * The top two draft picks have won Offensive ROTY and Defensive ROTY in the same season three times: 1981, 2010 and 2011.

Pepsi NFL ROTY Award
The Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Year award is an annual award given since 2002 to the top rookie in the NFL. The winner is selected by fans through an online voting process at NFL.com.

Every week during the NFL regular season, five finalists are chosen for the Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week award, and the winner is determined by fan voting online. Those results are used to help determine the finalists for the Rookie of the Year award. Voting occurs throughout the postseason and concludes the week before the Super Bowl. More than 350,000 votes were cast for the inaugural award in 2002, 1.002 million votes in 2009, and more than 1.59 million votes in 2010. Since 2011, the winner of the Pepsi Rookie of the Year award is announced at the NFL Honors show the night before the Super Bowl along with the AP Rookie of the Year awards.

PFW/Pro Football Writers of America NFL ROTY Award
The Pro Football Weekly/Pro Football Writers Association (PFW/PFWA) Rookie of the Year awards have been given annually to an offensive and defensive rookie in the NFL since 1969, except in 1985. The winners are chosen by PFW writers/editors and PFWA members.

Sporting News NFL ROTY Award
The Sporting News NFL Rookie of the Year award is chosen annually by NFL players, coaches, and executives. There were 617 voters in 2010, 632 voters in 2011, and over 800 voters in 2012.

United Press International NFL ROTY Award
United Press International (UPI) awarded an annual NFL Rookie of the Year award from 1955-1959 and two annual awards from 1960 to 1996. From 1960 to 1969 the awards went to a rookie from the NFL and AFL, and after the AFL–NFL merger in 1970, the awards went to a rookie from the National Football Conference (NFC) and American Football Conference (AFC).

NEA NFL ROTY Award
The NEA NFL Rookie of the Year award was founded in 1964 by the Newspaper Enterprise Association and was created by Murray Olderman, the senior sports editor for the NEA. From 1971 through 1976 winners for both the American Football Conference and National Football Conference were chosen, except in 1974. The award was discontinued after the 1996 season. Winners were awarded the Bert Bell Memorial Trophy in honor of former NFL commissioner Bert Bell.