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“It Should Be Named After Tom Brady”: Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson Weigh In on Renaming the Super Bowl Trophy

Alex Murray
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Shannon Sharpe, Tom Brady, and Chad Johnson

The renaming of the NFL’s Super Bowl award, the Vince Lombardi Trophy, has become a point of contention in NFL circles. Legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick recently said that he believes his old New England Patriots QB, Tom Brady, should have his name etched on the trophy instead of Lombardi’s. To his credit, Brady has won seven Super Bowls, more than any other player—or any NFL franchise, for that matter.

It’s not the craziest idea. But, giving it to Brady would also mean taking it away from Lombardi. Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson is not cool with that. To start, Vince Lombardi is just an awesome name, and “the Vince Lombardi Trophy” kind of rolls off the tongue at this point. However, the “Brady Trophy” just doesn’t have the same “umph” to it, and the name “Brady” will never escape the “Brady Bunch” connections, either.

“I like it, for what Tom Brady’s been able to accomplish. Arguably, the greatest quarterback of all-time. But it just sounds—something about Vince Lombardi. Lombardi. As great as Brady was. “Vince Lombardi”. It fits much better. Maybe there can be another award. “

Ochocinco suggested that maybe there is actually another trophy on which it would make more sense to engrave Tom Brady’s name. Shannon Sharpe then came up with the perfect answer: the Super Bowl MVP award.

“Sharpe: I’ll tell you what you do, name the Super Bowl MVP trophy after him.
Ochocinco: Bingo! Now that’s better.
Sharpe: Tom. Politic! … He’s won seven Super Bowls, The only thing he hasn’t won is the Walter Payton Man of the Year. The Super Bowl MVP, should be named after Tom Brady. I got no qualms with that. None, whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I’m advocating.
Ochocinco: We’re gonna push it!”

 

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See what happens when a couple of guys simply brainstorm for a few minutes?

Lombardi’s name is already synonymous with the Super Bowl trophy—and rightfully so. He won five championships in seven years as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s. That included a run from 1965 to 1967 in which they won the final NFL Championship in 1965, followed by the first two Super Bowl titles in 1966 and 1967. He was also a pioneer of the game on the offensive side.

He certainly deserves to have his name on there, and this alternative solution proposed by Shannon Sharpe allows Brady to receive recognition without taking anything away from Lombardi. It wouldn’t be unprecedented to give the Super Bowl MVP trophy a name, either. The NBA recently gave names to all of its awards, including the NBA Finals MVP trophy, which they named after NBA icon Bill Russell.

It might have made more sense to name it after Michael Jordan, who won the NBA Finals MVP a record six times. Instead, they named the league MVP trophy after Black Jesus, which is fair enough as well. Both Russell and Jordan deserved recognition, and that’s the point we’re making here as well.

Only six players in the 58-year history of the Super Bowl have been named MVP more than once. Eli Manning, Bart Starr, and Terry Bradshaw all won it twice, and Patrick Mahomes and Joe Montana both won it thrice.

But Tom Brady towers over the rest of them. He earned five Super Bowl MVP trophies to go with his seven Super Bowl rings. Not only that, but Brady also lost three other Super Bowls. That means he made it to the Big Game an insane 10 times during his 23-year career.

It’s not an exaggeration to say he quite literally owns the Super Bowl record book. He has attempted more passes, completed more passes, and thrown for more yards and passing TDs than anyone in the Game’s history. It would be only right to etch his name directly on the trophy after he ingrained his name so deeply in Super Bowl history.

Post Edited By:Samnur Reza

About the author

Alex Murray

Alex Murray

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Alex Murray has been active in the sport media industry since his graduation from the prestigious RTA School of Media at TMU (formerly Ryerson University) in downtown Toronto. He has had a specific focus and interest on all things football and NFL, which stems from his father, who imbued him with a love of football and the NFL over all other sports at a young age. Alex even played football up until his freshman year of college, when he realized that he would find more success writing about rather than playing the sport. Alex has written for a variety of sports media outlets, including theScore, FanSided, FantasyPros, GiveMeSport, and more.

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