Tennessee Titans Chris Johnson Wins Offensive Player Of The Year
2009 O Player Of The Year
Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson won the 2009 NFL Offensive Player of the Year award. The second year pro Johnson earned 38 1/2 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL to easily beat out New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, who received nine votes.
The fastest man in pro football set a league mark for yards from scrimmage (2,509) and becoming the sixth player with a 2,000-yard rushing season and is the first NFL player to finish with at least 2,000 yards rushing and 500 receiving (503).
Johnson became the first player to run for three TDs of 85 yards or longer in a season; no NFL player had even done that in a career. He’ll start next season with a streak of 11 100-yard rushing games; Barry Sanders holds the record with 14 in 1997.
In November, Johnson rushed for 800 yards, the best month of any running back in NFL history. By then, it was a one-man show in the Tennessee backfield; as a rookie, Johnson split duties with LenDale White, and rushed for 1,228 yards and nine TDs. This season, White got only 64 carries a year after running for 15 touchdowns in 2008.
Johnson is the first Titan to win the honor, but the third player in franchise history. Quarterback Warren Moon won in 1990 as a Houston Oiler, and Earl Campbell took the award from 1978-80 with the Oilers.
League MVP Peyton Manning of Indianapolis drew 1 1/2 votes, and San Diego Philip Rivers got one.
Warren Moon Goes All Tony Soprano
Talk About Greats Betta Talk Bout Me
Like an episode right out of the Sopranos Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Moon would wait until the end of the day before sneaking into the back entrance twice each week to a psychologist office, where a Minneapolis psychologist scheduled Moon with the last appointment so it was not to be known the NFL quarterback was in therapy.
“I’d go Tuesday and Fridays, and I’d always go at the end of the day so no one would see me in the stairway,” Moon recalled during a recent interview. “Confidentiality was a big thing with me, but once I got past that, I was able to open up and talk about myself.”
As many find out once in therapy they have many suppressed issues and Moon was no different.
“When my dad passed away, I took a lot of responsibility and probably matured a lot faster because I was so caught up with being the ‘man of the house’ with my sisters and my mom,” said Moon. “Football was a way for me to make it in order to take care of my family. I never really paid any attention to me, except for the kind of football player I wanted to be.”
Moon’s autobiography, “Never Give Up on Your Dream: My Journey,” details his experiences during a lifetime of personal and professional challenges.
“One of the things I learned from this whole experience is that you need to deal with yourself first,” said Moon. “If you do that, you’ll be a better person to be around for others…”Address your feelings. Address your emotions. It will be a much more freeing experience in life, which will help you to be better to others around you.”
From being one of the top quarterbacks in the nation at the University of Washington to going undrafted by the NFL, Moon had to overcome stereotypes at every level. He is one of two people to be enshrined in both the to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame where he won five Grey Cups for the Edmonton Eskimos. He is also the first, and currently only, African-American quarterback elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Moon wound up playing for 17 NFL seasons for the Oilers, Seahawks, Vikings and Chiefs and passing a over 49,325 yards, 291 touchdown passes.
Moon’s message to others: Live the dream.
