Toward the end of his career in the early 1980s, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann annually considered whether he wanted to play another season. To guide himself, he would ask a question: What do I have left to accomplish? He would list the NFL MVP award among his unattained feats. And then he would dismiss the idea of ever winning it.
“That’s not going to happen as a wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers at that time,” Swann said this week in a telephone conversation. “It was fantasy for receivers to think they would be considered for that kind of vote.”
MVP honors remain, all these years later, in the realm of daydreams for wideouts, but another Steelers wide receiver finally could turn that dream into reality. Amid both another superlative season and the recent fading of high-profile quarterbacks, Antonio Brown has emerged as a candidate. He leads the NFL with 1,509 receiving yards and 99 catches and is the unquestioned engine of the AFC’s current No. 1 seed. With a Steelers victory over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on Sunday, Brown could solidify a potentially groundbreaking case.
History could be his stiffest competition. No NFL wide receiver has won the award, but that barely suffices in showing how underrepresented wide receivers have been when considering the award.
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For the Associated Press MVP, recognized by the NFL as the official award, the 50 voters have only one first-place vote. The all-or-nothing nature of the vote, along with preference for quarterbacks and running backs, mean some of the best receiving seasons ever have gone unrecognized in award voting.
The last time a wideout so much as received a vote came in 1998, when Randy Moss finished tied for third in the balloting in his rookie season. Since 1980, Jerry Rice, Sterling Sharpe and Moss are the only wide receivers who have received a vote. Rice is the only wideout to finish second since 1973.
Apprised of those facts, Steve Largent, one of 25 wide receivers in the Hall of Fame, mustered this understandable response: “Huh. Wow. That’s surprising to me.”
There have been likely Hall of Famers — Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and Andre Johnson, to name three — who have played their entire careers, or close to it, without seeing one of their brethren even crack the MVP discussion.
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“I think it’s crazy,” Fitzgerald said. “Antonio Brown has had the best year out of any player in the league right now. He has been the most dominant. I don’t even think it’s close right now. I just don’t understand why receivers aren’t valued the same way that other players are, even when they have a considerable impact like he does on a week-to-week basis. I know at least two to three games, I wouldn’t say he won it individually, but his effort has pretty much propelled his team to victories. That’s legendary type stuff.”
When Calvin Johnson set the single-season record with 1,964 yards receiving in 2012, all 50 MVP votes went to winner Adrian Peterson and runner-up Peyton Manning. When Marvin Harrison caught 143 passes for 1,722 yards in 2002, quarterback Rich Gannon led the six players who received votes instead of him. When Julio Jones surpassed 1,800 yards in 2015, Cam Newton got 48 of 50 votes, with Carson Palmer and Brady each drawing one.
“I think the passing game has evolved,” Swann said. “When you start to look at the impact a wide receiver today can have on a game, specifically when you a look at Antonio Brown, it’s evolved to where a wide receiver can be legitimately considered as an MVP of the league. Look, when I played for the Steelers, we hardly threw enough to have a wide receiver to be considered an MVP.”
The case for wide receivers is hurt by the position’s inherent reliance on teammates. For receivers to produce, a quarterback must throw them the ball. A running back is guaranteed to carry the ball on a running play. A receiver must hope the quarterback sees him open, does not get sacked and makes a catchable throw. And even when it works out, the quarterback shares credit.
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“I mean, I guess I could understand it if you say, well, a receiver’s only as good as his quarterback, and the quarterback has got to get him the football,” Largent said. “There’s been some outstanding receivers that deserve more consideration than they’re getting.”
In a great game, a receiver could catch eight passes. The same number of carries or pass attempts would barely be a strenuous quarter. “All receivers don’t touch the ball that often,” Largent said.
The closest a wide receiver came to winning MVP came in 1987, when Rice scored 23 touchdowns over just 12 games in a strike-shortened season. Rice received 30 votes to John Elway’s 36 and finished second. He might have won easily had his quarterback, Joe Montana, not siphoned off 18 votes. If Rice had received just a third of his quarterback’s votes, he would have claimed the trophy.
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“In the connection of a receiver and a quarterback, more weight is given to the quarterback,” Swann said.
Rice also lost to a quarterback in perhaps his best season. In 1995, he produced the best statistical season for a wide receiver, to that point, in NFL history: 122 receptions, 1,848 receiving yards, 15 touchdowns. Yet he finished a distant second to Brett Favre, garnering 10 votes to Favre’s 69.
Quarterbacks have dominated the award, never more so than recent years. Quarterbacks have won the MVP in nine of the past 10 seasons, including the last four. “It’s kind of become, just as the game has become a quarterback-oriented game, that’s where the focus of the voters has been,” said the AP’s Barry Wilner, who organizes the voting.
Circumstances conspired last week to thrust Brown into the forefront of this year’s race. Carson Wentz, probably the leading candidate, suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament tear that, while not eliminating him, greatly diminishes his case. Brady played one his worst games in recent memory in Miami. Russell Wilson lost for the fifth time as the Seahawks’ playoff chances were endangered.
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Brown, meanwhile, caught 11 passes for 213 yards in the Steelers’ comeback victory over the Ravens, setting up a massive game this weekend against the Patriots.
“If you just look at the last three games the Steelers have played, coming back from behind and the role Antonio Brown has played in that, I think he is deserving of being the MVP of the league,” Swann said. “I think for Antonio to have real consideration, when the Steelers are playing New England, that’s a game he’s going to have to step up in. Will his performance allow him to be considered an MVP?”
Brown has for years been one of the NFL’s best players, a receiver — and returner — of astonishing quickness, speed and agility. This may be his best season. If Brown quit tomorrow, his season would rank 38th all-time in receiving yards. If he averages 163.7 yards — a total he’s surpassed three times this year — in the final three games, Brown would reach the mythic 2,000-yard barrier.
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“They just can’t cover him,” Largent said. “He’s a real weapon in the Steelers’ offense. Teams come in to play Pittsburgh and they know he’s a weapon, and they still can’t cover him. … He’s a brave guy. He goes over the middle. He’s not afraid to get it. I have a lot of respect for him.”
The closest Largent came to an MVP came in 1979, when he finished tied for sixth. Since, only three men have received even a vote. Largent hopes Brown breaks the trend, and not only on behalf of all the snubbed receivers who came before him.
“I think so, for sure,” Largent said. “I mean, it’s not about just rooting for him because a receiver’s never won it. It’s about rooting for him because he deserves it. I just hope the people who vote for most valuable player vote for him and don’t overlook him just because he’s a wide receiver.”
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