The Kansas City Chiefs had two very deserving players of their MVP award and decided to split the vote. The Chiefs announced at the 101 Awards on Saturday night that QB Alex Smith and S Eric Berry were named co-MVPs of the 2015-6 season.
Both are clearly well deserved. The Chiefs don't win 11 straight games without the play of Alex Smith. He threw for a career high 3,486 yards and a career high 498 rushing yards with 20 touchdowns to just seven interceptions. Alex was a reason the Chiefs were winning games in the second half of the season and you could see on the field that he was one of the team leaders.
Meanwhile, what can you say about Eric Berry? The dude oozes leadership and his inspiring return from Hodgkins Lymphoma added to his legend. Not only that but Berry came back a slimmer, better player. There were other options for the Chiefs franchise tag but GM John Dorsey would have faced a revolt from the fan base if the Chiefs didn't use that tag on Berry. I suspect they'll reach a long-term deal at some point and Berry will be a Chief for years to come.
Their speeches with video courtesy of the KC Star...
Co-MVP Alex Smith
"Football is the ultimate team sport and its funny to get an individual recognition with that. We're all a little uncomfortable with it but with that this is a tremendous honor. Any time your peers vote on something like this and to be recognized with an award of this caliber is very humbling. IT makes it more humbling when you get to share it with a guy like EB, the player that he is, the person that he is and the teammate that he is. To be able to share this with him today is very special and a great honor. We're all products of the guys around us and I think me more than anybody signifies that."
Co-MVP Eric Berry
"Everybody came and sat on my living room couch. Hunt, Ted, Dorsey, coach Reid, it was cool man to see everybody come down and they really just supported me outside of the whole football thing. To be honest with you we didn't talk anything about football. We just talked about life and having a good time and talked about our families so that was cool. I don't think you can get that at any other organization. You probably can but I can speak on the Chiefs organization. You get that true family feel."