Griffin beats out Seahawks' Wilson as Rookie of Year
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins has won The Associated Press 2012 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award, beating out two other sensational first-year quarterbacks.
Griffin, whose thrill-a-minute combination of running and passing skills led Washington to its first NFC East title in 13 years, pulled away from Andrew Luck of the Colts and Russell Wilson of the Seahawks in a lopsided vote announced Saturday.
RG3 earned 29 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league. Luck was next with 11 and Wilson got 10.
All three led their teams to the playoffs.
Griffin, who severely injured his right knee in a wild-card round loss to the Seahawks, set the NFL record for best passer rating by a rookie QB.
He accepted his award at the "2nd Annual NFL Honors" awards show on CBS saluting the NFL's best players, performances and plays from the 2012 season.
Griffin, whose thrill-a-minute combination of running and passing skills led Washington to its first NFC East title in 13 years, pulled away from Andrew Luck of the Colts and Russell Wilson of the Seahawks in a lopsided vote announced Saturday.
RG3 earned 29 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league. Luck was next with 11 and Wilson got 10.
All three led their teams to the playoffs.
Griffin, who severely injured his right knee in a wild-card round loss to the Seahawks, set the NFL record for best passer rating by a rookie QB.
He accepted his award at the "2nd Annual NFL Honors" awards show on CBS saluting the NFL's best players, performances and plays from the 2012 season.
AFAIC, Russell is rookie (and player) of the year. He showed the most growth on the field within his position, and he hands-down helped define the Seahawks as contenders. His apparent ability to rally the team to him as a leader is impressive too.
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GO HAWKS !!!
Russell was voted ROTY by the people that make the NFL (AKA the FANS) in the Pepsi Max ROTY award. Associated Press doesn't matter. The media is supposed to reflect what the people want. Some puffed up sports writers don't mean anything.
I am not a foot ball fan so I don't understand the logic. Russell Wilson was the last one in the playoffs so sounds like he was the best.
Media bias. >sigh<
Who didn't see this coming?
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It's OK..I'll take the healthy knee over any cracker box award. RG3 has wrecked that knee twice now..he's done.
So a third round draft pick came in third behind the number 1 and 2 picks. I'm Shocked.
The only award that really matters is a superbowl ring, neither of these QB's accomplished that. That being said I think that Griffin had a better year but Wilson will have a longer career. At least that is how it looks like if they both continue to play the way they've been playing.
Russell's brains will outlast RG3's braun for many years to come. And as Russell says at the end every interview. "Go Hawks"!
Oh let him have it, and the MILLIONS he is costing the Redskins, with his bum knee that will never let him play the same. The coach cost him his career. This is all he will ever have through no fault of his own.Â
Fact: No QB under 6 feet tall has ever won a Super Bowl. Russell Wilson is 5'11.
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Sorry folks.
 @Grim Reaper You forgot the word "YET" at the end of your first sentence.
Fact: RG3 had better stats, period. Griffin had more passing yards, rushing yards, a better completion % and a better passer rating while playing in one less game than Wilson.
 @Grim Reaper And Wilson had the paint-by-number playbook for almost half the season, what's your point? Despite the early training wheels period, his stats caught up to RG3's quick by week 17. Plus he kept his knee intact because he knows how to get down after the run.
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Don't forget the other stat RG3 dominated in...fumbles. Put it down 12 times to Wilson's 6. Only Sanchez and Rivers had more. I'll take ball security over all of those other stats.
He doesn't even have the durability to properly finish the Redskin's season, but he's the best rookie? What a joke. Last time I checked, you can be the most talented athlete in the world, but if you can't compete, you're utterly worthless. Two years from now, when Wilson is the premier quarterback in the game, people will look back at this award and laugh.Â
 @windtreeman What? He finished the regular season with 2 must wins against the Eagles and Cowboys to get in the playoffs.  Oh maybe you are talking about the playoffs?  The AP award is voted on before the playoffs so it didn't really matter in the voting did it.  I think Wilson should have won though.
 @oledawg What? The Seahawks and Wilson didn't have any must wins to get in the playoffs being a Wild Card team?
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Yea, like beating the Eagles and Cowboys was a hard thing to do in 2012, so hard that the Redskins did it twice to both those teams!Â
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 @Too funny! No, that's not true at all, the Hawks ended the regular season with 5 wins and had a shot at the divisional title.  In fact the Redskins had the longest streak at 7 games and looking at the last 5 in comparison had the easier schedule by 3 wins.  None of that has anything to do with the point that the voting takes place before the playoff game and that was the point I was making to the original comments.
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Are you surprised that RGIII won? Â Looking at the stats and the weekly rookie winners it doesn't surprise me at all. Â All the talk about who is going to be better in the future doesn't mean anything either, this isn't a lifetime achievement award, it's based on their regular season rookie year, that's it.
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Both were great and both deserved it.
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Media hype won it for Griffin. Â Wilson will still be playing in the NFL after RGIII leaves the game with destroyed legs because he's still trying to play the college game.
Good, let him enjoy it, Russell Wilson brings us victory, ... and victory is better than recognition any day and even more on Sundays!!! Â
 @blaster I'd be willing to bet that next year at this time, although RG is a great one, Russell will be the guy EVERYONE is talking about. RG needs to learn how to stay healthy. What good is it to take on a linebacker if you're just going to get hurt and have to come out of the game. Russell understands this and his ability to avoid major injury (God willing) will serve him well.
 @blaster Uh, the Colts we brought more victories than the Seahawks, and the Redskins only one less.
 @sims  @blaster um, no, you moron.
@sims The Colts had the same regular season record as the Hawks did.
 @customerservice Was that a sentence? Not sure who you're responding to, since you specifically chose both previous posters. Feel free to consult the NFL standings; name-calling only outs yourself anyway.
If you base it on stats then they got the right guy. It should have been much closer though. I still believe Wilson and Luck will have much longer and more productive careers then RG3.
It's just a media award voted by the mediots. Wilson won the real award: the Pepsi MAX ROTY, all fan-voted. Even Luck deserved more than the paltry 11 votes he got. Let's face it, neither were marketed a fraction as much as RG3 who tried to shove Subway sandwiches down your throat every commercial break.Â
The problem is Russell plays for that little town up near Alaska.
Shhhhh, don't tell anyone but the only reason why they gave it to Griffin is because he got hurt and they felt bad for him.
@Tattooed_Angel I would agree with that but the voting is done before the playoffs start.
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 @Andy78  @Tattooed_Angel Wasn't the voting over this past week, or was it just the Pepsi thing?
 @DMT Pepsi was the fan vote.  The AP award was voted on before the playoffs began.
Pepsi was over the last week, the media types who vote on awards have to submit ballots before the playoffs start.
BOOOOOOOO!! Russell is better and deserves it!!
All three are great candidates. Numbers don't always tell the whole story. Wilson could have set the number of TD thrown by a rookie, but chose not too. He's a very humble guy and that's is rare in players these days. He will be a role model for many kids for years to come. He won my vote.
Great, put him on the cover of Madden 2014.
 @kinison Bwahahaha!  Make him the latest victim of the Madden Curse?
If you look at it from a rookie MVP standpoint, RG3 was probably more important to the Skins than Russell was to the Hawks since we're more well rounded. Regardless it is just an award.. Russell will be wearing the ring sooner than RG3!
Pure politics and East Coast bias, We all know Russell Wilson was a better player this year and will be better over his career.
 @Gaikokujin Please elaborate on this assumption, so as not to show any hometown bias.
All three players had phenominal rookie seasons. I am biased but I think Russell deserved the award. I do think the West Coast thing played a part but I think Russell will be a star in the NFL......Go Hawks! :)
That's crap. Wilson is the better player. Broke more records and went further into the playoffs. It's all about popularity, not how good a player he is.
 @pinkyjones It's not about the playoffs.  It's all about the fact that RG3 comes from a bigger market.
 @stamperzann Yes, I know. That is one of my complaints. You have a rookie that went further but it means nothing. It's a flawed system. Just because Seattle isn't in the "mainstream" sports market, we're not even considered for any kind of recognition. Sad but true.
 @pinkyjones Shaun Alexander was the MVP in 2005. This "small market" crap is nonsense. RG3 had better stats, period. Griffin had more passing yards, rushing yards, a better completion % and a better passer rating while playing in one less game than Wilson.
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 @pinkyjones Playoffs don't have any effect on ROTY. I think Wilson should have AT LEAST been closer than 10 of 50 votes. But it does make me feel a lot better that Wilson will be playing next year, and RGIII probably will be on the sidelines.
Of COURSE he did. Russell is from the NFC West. The people who decide these things never take our division seriously.....till next year. *snicker*
 @Harley-H.S.C.Â
A team form the NFC West is going to win the Super Bowl for the 6th time today.