Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba gets his trophy - but for wrong award
The Seattle Times • • sports
Key Points:
- Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba revealed that his Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year trophy was mistakenly engraved as "Defensive Player of the Year" with a typo merging "THEYEAR" into one word.
- The NFL, responsible for producing the awards, apologized for the error and is in the process of creating and shipping a corrected trophy to Smith-Njigba.
- Smith-Njigba, who led the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards, became the second Seahawk to win the award, narrowly beating Christian McCaffrey in the vote.
- Despite the trophy mishap, Smith-Njigba recently signed a record-breaking contract making him the highest-paid receiver in NFL history and will receive a Super Bowl ring with the Seahawks later this year.
- The incident follows a previous public error when comedian Druski mispronounced Smith-Njigba’s name during the NFL Honors show, highlighting ongoing recognition challenges for the player.