Bert Bell Award

Drew Brees has been nothing short of spectacular this season in leading New Orleans to a 13-3 record, the NFC South Division Title and a first round bye in the NFL playoffs. The ninth-year veteran completed 363 of 514 passes for 4,388 yards and 34 touchdowns. His completion percentage of 70.6 and quarterback rating of 109.6 were both career highs and ranked him tops in the NFL in both categories.

Brees was also the 2000 Maxwell Award Winner as the College Player of the Year.

Randall Cunningham wrote a remarkable comeback story with Minnesota Vikings in 1998. Out of football in 1996, re-signed by the Vikings in '97, Cunningham came off the bench this season to lead Minnesota to the NFL's best regular season record at 15-1.

Cunningham was the top rated passer in the league, completing 61 percent of his attempts with 34 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions. He teamed with receivers Randy Moss and Cris Carter to give the Vikings the highest scoring offense in NFL history, 556 points.

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Kurt Warner isn't just the NFL Player of the Year. He is also the Story of the Year, maybe any year.

He worked his way up the ladder from Northern Iowa (where he did not start until he was a fifth year senior) to the Arena Football League (he was an Iowa Barnstormer) to NFL Europe (he was an Amsterdam Admiral) and finally to the St. Louis Rams where he went from third-stringer to All-Pro.

If there is a moral to the story, Warner said, it is persistence.

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If St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner had a vote for the NFL's Most Valuable Player, he would cast it for his teammate, running back Marshall Faulk. That's quite a statement considering Warner himself had passed for 4,830 yards and 36 touchdowns in the 2001 season.

"How could you not vote for Marshall?" Warner asked. "His heart, his character, and the way he plays. I don't think you can find words to describe it. He's the essence of this team. The heart of this team. All of us feed off of him."

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Rich Gannon, native of Northeast Philadelphia, graduate of St. Joseph’s Prep and the University of Delaware, finally reached the mountaintop in the 2002 season. He set four NFL passing records, led the Oakland Raiders to their first Super Bowl appearance since 1984 and won his second Bert Bell Award from the Maxwell Football Club as the Professional Player of the Year.

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Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts set a new standard for quarterback excellence in 2004. He set the NFL record for touchdown passes in a season with 49, breaking the mark set by Miami's Dan Marino in 1984. He also finished the season with a 121.1 quarterback rating, easily surpassing the previous high of 112.8 set by San Francisco's Steve Young in 1994.

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When Shaun Alexander was a youngster, he watched the great running backs.

“I would take pieces of their games,” he said. “I’d try to follow blocks like Emmitt Smith. I’d try to burst through a hole like Marcus Allen. I’d try to stay low and break tackles like Tony Dorsett.”

Now 28, Alexander has run past all of those Hall of Famers – and everyone else, for that matter – in the NFL record book. In the 2005 season, he set the league record by scoring 28 touchdowns. He also became the first NFL player to score 15 or more touchdowns in five consecutive seasons.

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LaDainian Tomlinson ran away with everything in the 2006 football season, including the 48th annual Bert Bell Award as the Maxwell Club’s Professional Player of the Year.

The San Diego Chargers brilliant running back broke the NFL records for points (186) and touchdowns (31) in a season. He also led the league with 1,815 yards rushing, caught 56 passes for an additional 508 yards and he even threw two touchdown passes as the Chargers posted the NFL’s best record at 14-2.

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New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft enjoys telling the story about how he met Tom Brady for the first time. It was during the 2000 mini-camp when Brady was a rookie buried at the bottom of the depth chart.

He stopped Kraft one day after practice. “We’ve never met,” he said, “but I’m Tom Brady.” Kraft said, “I know who you are, you’re the quarterback from Michigan. You were our sixth round draft choice.”

Kraft recalls Brady saying, “Yes, and I’m the best decision this organization has ever made.”

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It took less than 24 months for Adrian Peterson to morph from being an injured college student to being the best player in the NFL. Such a meteoric rise may be the only thing faster than Peterson himself.

“His speed is what sets him apart,” commented Bears linebacker Lance Briggs to the Chicago Tribune after Peterson’s 131 yards helped the Vikings rout the Monsters of the Midway in late November. “It can throw off your tackling angles. You can’t make a regular form tackle. By the time you get up to his body, he is three yards away from you.”

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