Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award



The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award is presented annually by the Associated Press (AP) to a player in the National Football League (NFL) deemed to have been the "most valuable" in that year's regular season. While there have been many selectors of NFL MVPs in the past, today the MVP award presented by the AP is considered the de facto official NFL MVP award and the most prestigious. Since 2011, the NFL has held the annual NFL Honors ceremony to recognize the winner of each year's AP MVP award, along with other AP awards, such as the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year and AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year. The current AP NFL MVP is quarterback Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the award for the first time after the 2018 NFL season, after throwing for over 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in his first full year as a starter.

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. Voters for the award have included Troy Aikman of Fox Sports; Cris Collinsworth and Tony Dungy of NBC Sports; and Herm Edwards of ESPN. The only player to be voted unanimously is Tom Brady, who received all 50 votes for the 2010 season's award.

Due to voters' tendency to favor offensive positions, 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.

Thirteen awardees also won the Super Bowl (or NFL Championship Game prior to 1966) in the same season. However, this has not occurred since 1999, when MVP Kurt Warner won Super Bowl XXXIV with the St. Louis Rams. Since then, nine AP NFL MVPs have led their team to the Super Bowl and were defeated each time. This has led to claims in recent years that there is a "curse" preventing the awardee's team from winning the Super Bowl.

Eight NFL franchises have not produced an MVP, the Baltimore Ravens, New York Jets, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, St. Louis/Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis/Baltimore Colts have had the most overall winners with seven and the most unique winners with four different players winning the award.

Discrepancies
The AP has presented an award recognizing the NFL's top player since the 1957 season, 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", and the 1962 winner was recognized as the AP's "Player of the Year". The AP considers 1961 to be the first year in which it presented a "Most Valuable Player" award. 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.