Tag: Lombardi Trophy

2 Tigers named to Lombardi Trophy preseason watch list

Harold Perkins and Mekhi Wingo were nominated for the award for the nation’s top lineman.

LSU defensive tackle [autotag]Mekhi Wingo[/autotag] and linebacker [autotag]Harold Perkins[/autotag] have been named to the preseason watch list for the Lombardi Trophy, which is given annually to the top lineman in college football.

Wingo had a breakout campaign in 2022 as a transfer from Missouri, starting in 13 games in place of the injured [autotag]Maason Smith[/autotag]. He became an All-SEC player and will now comprise part of what could be one of college football’s best defensive fronts.

Perkins, meanwhile, saw most of his reps at the edge rushing the passer last season, but that’s set to change. He’s mostly worked off the ball at inside linebacker, and it’s unclear how much he will actually line up at the line of scrimmage this season.

Regardless, both players should be among the top defensive players in the SEC. Both were nominated for the Nagurski Trophy, and Wingo also appears on the watch list for the Outland Trophy. Perkins is on the watch lists for the Butkus, Walter Camp and Bednarik Awards.

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WATCH: Chiefs take Lombardi Trophy for visit to Whiteman Air Force Base

The #Chiefs did their own flyover, bringing the Lombardi Trophy for a visit to men and women serving at Whiteman Air Force Base.

The Kansas City Chiefs are taking the Super Bowl LVII celebration on the road with their “Chiefs Champions Tour.” The team is scheduled to make stops in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska with the Lombardi Trophy in tow.

While several public celebrations are on the schedule, the team recently took a private trip to visit the service men and women at Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, Missouri.

“Today is an amazing day for the Kansas City Chiefs football club,” Chiefs team military liaison Matt Yandura said. “Coming off of an extremely successful season as the world champions, we decided that Whiteman Air Force Base was going to be the first military installation that we would show up with the Lombardi Trophy.”

Hundreds of airmen and their families came out to see and get their pictures taken with the Lombardi Trophy, along with an opportunity to interact with Chiefs cheerleaders, KC Wolf and several staff members along with some Chiefs Ambassadors.

“It means a lot, especially for the men and women out here,” SFC Paul Karg said. “Seeing what they do, it means a lot from an organization as big as the Kansas City Chiefs.”

“They are great supporters of us and we are great supporters of them,” First Lieutenant Landon Diedrich said. “We have their logo on our jets and also on some of the unofficial patches that we have right here. So, it has been a great relationship that we have with (the Chiefs) and it’s a great time for us to show them a little bit more behind the scenes of what we do, what our aircraft is and how we actually employ and train.”

You can watch the full video from the Chiefs on their visit to Whiteman Air Force Base at the top of the page.

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Chiefs HC Andy Reid poses with Lombardi Trophy at Missouri Special Olympics event

#Chiefs HC Andy Reid posed with Special Olympics athletes and the Lombardi Trophy at a fundraising event this past week.

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The Kansas City Chiefs host local Special Olympians at Arrowhead Stadium for the third annual “Evening with Andy Reid” event.

Coach Reid was joined by Chiefs defenders Justin Reid and George Karlaftis at the event. Eric Stonestreet was the emcee of the evening, but the star of the show was the Lombardi Trophy. Before the event formally began, Reid posed for pictures with a number of Special Olympians while holding the Lombardi Trophy.

Reid answered questions for the athletes, but there were also fundraising elements including a “Fund-a-Need” and an auction. At its roots, this event is a fundraiser and early estimates show that Reid and the Chiefs raised a ton of money for the Special Olympics Missouri branch. Here’s some information about that from their website:

More than 450 people came together to support SOMO at the Third Annual Evening with Andy Reid at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday, June 8. This year’s event has raised more than $254,000, but that is just the initial total. It’s expected to increase as our staff continues to collect donations.

You can find out more about donating to SOMO here.

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Cowboys legends Daryl Johnston, Jimmy Johnson unbox Super Bowl LVII trophy in Canton for USFL championship

Johnston, the USFL’s EVP of football operations, helped to create a special visit for a group of players hoping to make the NFL one day. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Daryl Johnston won three Super Bowls as a key member of the Cowboys teams of the 1990s. Now, for the man they call “Moose,” it’s championship weekend once again.

Johnston, 56, has been the executive vice president of football operations for the newest incarnation of the USFL. As a way to keep costs down in the league’s first year, all eight teams played their games in Birmingham, Alabama. But when the Stars and the Stallions face off for the USFL Championship on Sunday, it will be in Canton, Ohio, on the hallowed grounds of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And Johnston can’t wait.

“It was out of necessity on our end,” Johnston admitted recently on the Hall’s The Mission podcast. The 2022 World Games (an international event for sports not included in the Olympics) was already booked to hit Birmingham in early July.

“We were able to finish our regular season, but we were not going to be able to get into our playoffs. So we were going to have to move,” Johnston said. “If you’re going to pack up and move, it doesn’t matter if you move five miles or 500 miles, you’re moving. So why not go all the way to Canton?”

The first round of the USFL playoffs took place at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium last weekend; the title game will happen this weekend.

Johnston brought the final four teams- a group of over 250 people- to tour the Hall last week. Ahead of the trip, Johnston maintained that the experience of taking in the game’s rich history in Canton would be “life-changing” for the players, most of whom are using the USFL as a second chance to one day land a job on an NFL roster.

To make sure they understood the importance of where they were, Johnston invited a special guest to personally address the group with a motivational talk.

His former Cowboys coach, and a new Hall of Famer himself, Jimmy Johnson.

“We’re trying to do anything we can to make this really, really special for our guys,” the ex-fullback explained. “It was one of those things that you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’ll give this a try, But gosh, this is a pretty big ask for a guy that probably has a million asks like this all the time.’ So we were so flattered and so thrilled when he decided to come.”

The group got an even bigger surprise when the former player-and-coach duo personally unboxed next season’s Lombardi Trophy and placed it inside the Hall’s Super Bowl Gallery.

“Coach, this represents the third one we would have won in a row if we had kept you in Dallas,” Johnston joked as he handed the iconic Tiffany-made sterling silver trophy to his ex-coach.

The trophy will reside in Canton for the duration of the 2022 regular season, but the last four standing USFL teams- and a few lucky Hall patrons- got to be the very first to see the NFL’s biggest prize.

Crystal Roth of Ste. Genevieve, Mo. was visiting the Hall of Fame for the first time. She just happened to be wearing an Emmitt Smith jersey that her late father had purchased for her nearly 30 years ago, having no knowledge of the ceremony that was planned for that afternoon. As told by Daniel May and Brendan Heffernan on the Hall of Fame website, Roth was overcome with emotion when she and her family caught a glimpse of two heroes from her favorite team.

“Maybe since Jimmy had his hands on it, we have a chance,” Roth said. “Lord knows we deserve it.”

A chance.

That’s what the Cowboys are after, a chance at adding a sixth trophy to the display case at The Star in Frisco.

But second chances are what Johnston’s spring league is all about.

“I had one of the coaches in the USFL share with me something that’s really changed my way of looking at this,” the 11-year veteran said. “These guys have been to the NFL before. They’ve had that opportunity. But they didn’t stay there. So our job is not to get them there. Our job is to make sure, when they have that opportunity the next time, that they stay there. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The USFL is reportedly primed to make the most of its second chance, too. According to the CEO of Fox Sports, the league will return in 2023 for a second year. It will remain at eight teams (though there is a plan to expand for 2024), but it looks to play in two to four home markets next season.

Johnston hopes, though, that the championship being held at Hall of Fame Stadium becomes an annual tradition.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed that it does,” he said. “It’s a lot of heavy lifting for a lot of people to pull this off, but I think the reward on the back side is going to be tremendous, and I cannot wait.”

Johnston, of course, has seen first-hand what makes Canton so special. He visited as a youth on a family vacation. He played in the Hall of Fame Game with the Cowboys in 1999, his final season. He went back to attend the induction ceremonies for many of his Dallas teammates, and he had more than one call him out by name during their enshrinement speeches.

“I am going to be watching these guys, championship weekend as they go through the Hall and the tours,” Johnston said, “as they just kind of soak in the history that is there. I am so excited for our guys to be able to have this experience.”

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The Rams are taking the Lombardi Trophy on tour

The Rams are taking the Lombardi Trophy on tour, giving fans in Southern California a chance to take a photo with it

The Rams paraded through a small portion of Los Angeles with the Lombardi Trophy after winning Super Bowl LVI, giving fans a distant look at the coveted hardware. Everyone from Aaron Donald to Cooper Kupp to Sean McVay held up the trophy in pure elation, celebrating the team’s world championship.

We might be a couple of months removed from the Super Bowl, but the party isn’t stopping. The Rams are taking the Lombardi Trophy on tour through Southern California. They announced the news on Thursday, revealing the route with dates and times for each stop.

The Rams will even go as far as San Diego, though the date and location of that visit is still TBD.

Each event is free for fans to attend and visitors will get a chance to take a photo with the Lombardi Trophy. More information can be found on the Rams’ site.

Lombardi Trophy semifinalists announced: Jordan Davis not included

Yikes…big miss by the @RotaryLombardi Award

The Rotary Lombardi Award released its 12 semifinalists and somehow did not include Georgia Bulldogs defensive tackle Jordan Davis.

The award is given annually to the nation’s top lineman at the end of the season, whether it be on the offensive or defensive side of the ball.

Davis, who has been arguably the best overall player in college football, was somehow left off.

How you don’t include Davis is absolutely mind-boggling.

Many in the media are calling for the 6-foot-6, 340 pound Davis to be in contention for the Heisman Trophy. And no, those are not just members of the Georgia media, but national media members as well.

Davis has been the best player on the best defense in college football. Not including him as a semifinalist was a huge miss by the Lombardi Award.

Tom Brady adds his hilarious perspective to tossing Super Bowl LV trophy

At least his eight-year old daughter was thinking with maturity, but she was the only one.

Tom Brady had the opportunity to celebrate a familiar success in a very unfamiliar way.

For the seventh time in his two-decade long career, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback was able to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Unlike his time with the New England Patriots, Brady has been much more relaxed and joyful. The future Hall of Famer is living in Florida, has an extremely talented team around him and doesn’t have the military environment to cope with.

Because of these factors, he decided to let to let loose and have a few drinks during the Buccaneers’ parade — the rest was history. Brady infamously tossed the Lombardi Trophy from one boat to another with hopes that his teammates would successfully catch it.

Brady, while joining The Late Show with James Corden, offered some perspective on that moment. He said his eight-year old daughter was the only one with some sense at the moment.

“First of all, I was not thinking at that moment. It was not a thought. It was, ‘This seems really fun to do,'” a laughing Brady said. “Not to mention, when you get your hands on one of those trophies, there’s a lot of really sharp edges on the bottom. … I found out later, had that been an incomplete pass, that would have went down like 80 feet. I’m so happy that [tight end] Cam [Brate caught it].”

His daughter, Vivian, was on a boat next to him yelling, “daddy, no!”

“That’s my little 8-year-old daughter,” Brady said. “Who could imagine that an 8-year-old girl would have the most sense of anybody in that whole area? I mean, she’s the voice of reason. Go figure.”

https://www.facebook.com/TomBrady/posts/286657692818126

It was a hilarious, but well-earned moment for the greatest quarterback to ever do it.

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Tom Brady didn’t disrespect the Lombardi Trophy. Quite the opposite!

The Lombardi Trophy lived the dream last week!

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Remember last week when Tom Brady had some fun celebrating his nine millionth Super Bowl title by throwing the Lombardi Trophy from one boat to another boat?

It was a funny moment that we all laughed at and even marveled at because we had never seen the Lombardi Trophy get thrown from one boat to another boat while out on the open sea (or river, or harbor, or whatever they were in).

It was all in good fun. Fun is fun. Fun is more than OK. Fun is good.

Well, over the weekend a story came out with a woman named Lorraine Grohs saying that Brady “disrespected” and “disgraced” the trophy by throwing it. Grohs is the daughter of the man who made the trophy and she felt the whole thing was not cool to those who spent a lot of time making the trophy.

Now I’m all for someone sticking up for their dad and sharing their feelings on subjects. That’s cool and also awesome and if I ever have a kid it would make me proud to hear them stick up for me and whatever I was doing with my life.

But with this one I think quite the opposite happened with that trophy. Brady didn’t disrespect the trophy at all. Instead, Brady let that trophy get out there and live life like a Lombardi Trophy had never lived before! Did you see how happy that trophy was as it sailed through the air on a sunny and warm Florida day!?

Also, this trophy didn’t get thrown by just any Super Bowl-winning QB. I mean, this wasn’t Trent Dilfer or Jeff Hostetler or anything like that. This was the GOAT, Tom freaking Brady!

That trophy was living the trophy dream!

Far too often a Lombardi Trophy is forced to be held outside in the freezing cold for hours as the vehicle it’s on slowly makes its way down packed, wintery streets. Have you ever sat outside for hours while someone held you up higher into the cold air as others cheered you on while never asking if you needed a blanket or anything? I haven’t, either, but I have to imagine that at some point that would get really annoying… and really painful.

I also have to imagine those poor trophies would kill to be on a boat with a warm sun baking down on it as one gleeful man/GOAT happily tosses it to a bunch of other gleeful men who were more than excited to catch it.

Brady didn’t do anything wrong with the trophy and doesn’t owe anyone an apology. If anything, the trophy should be thanking him for quite a day. But yeah, that’s probably never going to happen because, well, trophies can’t talk.

Quick hits: Marshawn Lynch’s amazing commentating debut… NASCAR driver takes a pit stops at Panda Express… TJ Watt’s perfect tweet… And more.

Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

– Marshawn Lynch had an incredible debut as an announcer this weekend.

– A NASCAR driver made a pit stop at a Panda Express during Sunday’s rain delay at the Daytona 500.

– TJ Watt had the perfect tweet after his brother, JJ Watt, was released by the Houston Texans.

– Antoine Winfield Jr. had an awesome moment with his dad after Super Bowl 55.

Tom Brady is now in trouble for chucking the Lombardi Trophy off a boat

The daughter of the original Lombardi Trophy silversmith is asking for an apology.

An on-his-way-to-wobbly Tom Brady decided, the other day, to chuck the Lombardi Trophy from one boat to another. A Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end, Cameron Brate, caught it with relative ease.

No doubt by now you’ve seen the clip, and maybe read that Brate called it the best catch of his life. Perhaps the funniest part of the whole ordeal is that somebody caught Brady’s daughter yelling, “Noooo!” because, yes, women are smarter and make better choices, just in general.

Anyway, that pretty much was that. Not going to say it made Tom Brady cool or relatable. But it was a thing he did.

Or! Apparently there’s controversy around it:

“It takes a lotta work, a lotta hard work. A lot of hours go into it. It just really upset me that this trophy was disgraced and disrespected by being thrown as if it was a real football. I didn’t sleep for the past two nights because of this. I was that upset. Because I know the passion that goes into this trophy and how my dad and all his fellow silversmiths are so proud to make this. I personally would like an apology, not just to me and my family and the other silversmiths, but to the fans.”

Huh. Well. Kudos to Lorraine for defending her father’s line of work, and I can see where she’s coming from. However I feel like we should point out that the Lombardi Trophy, unlike the Stanley Cup, is re-sculpted each year. Meaning that Tom Brady has held SEVEN of these things. He was bound to get bored with them at some point. He, better than anyone in the history of the sport, knows they’re replaceable.

Also, his forever teammate Rob Gronkowski once famously used a Lombardi earned by the New England Patriots to literally bunt a baseball, leaving a large dent.

Besides that, the Stanley Cup — which is actually an artifact — is routinely abused by hockey players in various ways. That World Series trophy that looks like it was made to break constantly breaks. One of the most prestigious awards anywhere, the one given for winning the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, ended up in shards on the floor of the Wisconsin locker room this year.

To the victors go the spoils. What happens next is up to them.

LOOK: Alex Smith’s old leg-brace is now shaped like the Lombardi Trophy

Elizabeth Smith posted a photo of Alex’s old leg brace, which has now been shaped like the Lombardi Trophy.

There was a cool post that came from Elizabeth Smith, Washington quarterback Alex Smith’s wife ahead of the regular-finale on Sunday afternoon.

Smith posted a photo of Smith’s old external fixator brace that was used to stabilize his leg after the 17 surgeries following his gruesome injury. The brace has now been fashioned to look like the Lombardi Trophy, which is given to the NFL team to win the Super Bowl.

In the post, Smith wrote the following:

Waiting for this game and I’m a nervous wreck. I look up at our bookshelves as a reminder of where we have been and the hard work to get to this moment. No matter the outcome, Alex has already won. He has beat the largest challenge life has thrown our way. I am incredibly proud and will be cheering loud. Let’s go Washington!

Alex Smith will return to the field for the first time in several weeks on Sunday night with a chance to send Washington to the playoffs for the first time since 2015 with a win.

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