LOOKING BACK
By John Turney
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| Mackey Award. This is for the Linebacker of the Year, but the Lineman of the Year trophy was the same. |
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| NFL Alumni NFL Offensive Lineman of the Year Trophy |
To football fans the most familiar "honor" and offensive lineman can win is being voted to one of the various All-Pro teams in any given year. The Associated Press, United Press International, Newspaper Enterprise Association and the Pro Football Writers of America are the teams that are the most traditional and that are included in the NFL Record and Fact Book, which is released yearly.
However, at times there have been additional awards given out by press organizations, often with corporate sponsors and also by the NFLPA and the NFL Alumni Association that honor offensive linemen and were often accompanied by a Trophy and a dinner given by the club in question.
The voters were often NFL players or former NFL players or former players or coaches. The following is a list of those award winners that ranged from 1956 and went through 2010. We are not going into detail on each award at this time but at a future date, we will revisit this.
Anthony Munoz won awards in 1981-82 and 1986-90. Dwight Stephenson won the AFC Lineman of the Year Award from 1983-87 (5 times).
I wonder why Bob Kuechenberg didn't get any love for these awards? Mack truck awards? That is awesome, didn't know that even existed.
ReplyDeleteLet me comment about how much you so called experts don’t know about football OL.
DeleteOne of the best offensive lineman that has been completely overlooked by your expert eyes that was as good as any OT that ever played the game. “George Kunz.”
It was unfortunate that he always played on a non contending team but he was as good as any that plsyed this game and as a pass blocker Jackie Slater was as great as they come.
What is the feeling about Ron Yary's level of play in the late 70s? I thought he was good but not great in games i saw.
ReplyDeleteWow really? 80 was a disaster for Yary with many sacks, forces, and holds allowed. I'll have to check him out in 81.
ReplyDeleteAllen this is Ron Yary responding I never gave up a single QB sac in 81. except the 2 where my QB dropped back to 14+ yards because the rush came from the inside.
DeleteWhere do you get your information out of a cracker jack box.
I don’t know what game film you were watching but I had my best year as a OL blocker in 1980. if the QB was sacked it was because the scrambled out of the pocket to his right due to pressure from the left side.
DeleteDon’t tell me you watched my film.
I had my best year in 1980. You never watched any of my game film.
Bull !!!! I had virtually no sacs except for the ones where our QB scrambled out of the pocket to my right due to pressure from his left side.
DeleteYary is a real interesting case. He gets no love today, and I always figured it was because he was a Viking (0-4 in Super Bowls - Tarkenton, Eller, Tingelhoff, even Page get historically dinged), but all I've read about him is that he was good and not great. However he was a consensus all-pro 5 times out of 6 seasons ('71-'76). That is really incredible and is a feat that few OL can claim. So there's a disconnect there, reconciling his reputation with all of those all-pro teams he was on. How good was he, really? I'm stumped.
ReplyDeleteYou never watched game film of me in 1980. I had my best year ever blocking in 1980. I came to camp in the best shape of my career 288 lbs. with a 13% body fat
DeleteHis best years came in early 70s I guess. Not much full game film available from those times.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know how and/or by whom these awards were selected, other than the NFLPA (which was voted by players) and the AP (which was voted by writers)?
ReplyDeletein the beginning it was the offensive players voting for the defensive players and visa versa. We did this at the end of the year.
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