(Hat tip: Hogs Haven)
The five finalists for the Halas Award were announced recently, with an entire team making the list. The Washington Redskins become the first team (by most accounts) to be nominated for the Halas Award ... which awards a player(s) for overcoming adversity.
The Redskins made the playoffs despite having All-Pro safety Sean Taylor murdered during the season. Washington had to play two games in a five day stretch with Sean Taylor's funeral sandwiched in between. The Redskins would win their last four games and grab the final playoff berth in the NFC. As Skin Patrol from HogsHaven said, what the Skins did was quite a feat:
The run is even more impressive viewed in context. We lost our starting quarterback (Jason Campbell) and faced an impressive run of teams, including: 1) the Vikings, in their hood, and they missed the postseason by one game, 2) the Super Bowl winning Giants, in their hood, when they could have clinched a playoff spot with a win over us, and 3) the Cowboys who were in a position to set a franchise record..
Kevin Everett, the Buffalo Bills tight end who has made a remarkable comeback after being paralized on a tackle in the season opener, is the other favorite to win the award. Honestly, what he's done in mere months after that scary injury is the reason the Halas Award exists.
Other nominees include the Cowboys Greg Ellis (the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year), and the Giants Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress.
