Determining awards and selections via fan vote has led to some unusual picks over the years, including John Scott in the NHL All-Star Game, Johnny Manziel over Jim Brown as the Browns’ greatest player of all time, and The Dan Le Batard Show‘s attempt (ultimately unsuccessful) to send Lewis Brinson to the MLB All-Star Game. The latest along those lines was the Nickelodeon broadcast of the New Orleans Saints’ 21-9 win over the Chicago Bears in a NFL wild-card playoff game Sunday presenting Chicago quarterback Mitch Trubisky (who completed just 19 of 29 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown, with the touchdown and many of the yards coming in garbage time) with the fan-voted NVP as Nickelodeon Valuable Player, in a vote that wasn’t particularly close:
Mitchell Trubisky (1) has won more NVP Awards than Patrick Mahomes (0) and Deshaun Watson (0) COMBINED. pic.twitter.com/bTqVBQa2OO
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) January 11, 2021
Some of that may have come from Barstool Sports’ Dan Katz’s repeatedly-used #Mitch4NVP hashtag and repeated encouragements for fans to vote:
Let’s at least get Mitch the NVP on the Nickelodeon broadcast. Vote here https://t.co/3HEfmoQlhJ
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) January 10, 2021
LETS GOOOO #Mitch4NVP
Keep voting! https://t.co/3HEfmoyJT9 pic.twitter.com/qcKNgPXqr1
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) January 11, 2021
Some of the issue here (if having people vote for a “valuable player” who’s anything but valuable is an issue) is that people could easily vote multiple times and just keep voting. So that leads to a poll outcome that’s much easier to manipulate than if you limit it to one vote per IP address or something of the sort. And it’s pretty funny when that outcome comes after an awful performance, and one that might be Trubisky’s last in a Bears’ uniform (his contract is up). At any rate, this all meant that Trubisky won the NVP, and that led to a lot of funny media coverage:
https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1348434862705946625
The Bears signing Mitchell Trubisky to contract extension after he wins the NVP pic.twitter.com/58yU6AUqxQ
— #RingerNFL (@ringernfl) January 11, 2021
Mitch Trubisky’s Wikipedia page has been updated to reflect his first career NVP award. (h/t: @kscommenter) pic.twitter.com/yKfPl5531q
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 11, 2021
This also led to a funny moment when Nickelodeon star Lex Lumpkin (doing “sideline reporting” on this broadcast) got Trubisky’s name wrong during the announcement:
"Mick…Mitch Tribusky" was just named the #Nickelodeon Valuable Player in a losing effort in possibly his last game as a Bear. #chefskiss #nickelodeonnfl #NVP #Bears #BearsvsSaints pic.twitter.com/bIVTm28Kaf
— Chris DiNicolo (@CDiNicolo) January 11, 2021
Sadly, it does not appear that Trubisky was actually presented with this award. Nor was he slimed. But hey, Saints’ coach Sean Payton took the slime after the win:
https://twitter.com/CBSSports/status/1348449610801545219
At any rate, this selection may have not been reflective of “value,” but we can’t say it’s out of keeping with the history of the NVP, as this is the first time that award has ever been handed out. So perhaps the NVP will always be given to an embarrassing performance rather than a valuable one.
[Photo via @Nickelodeon on Twitter]
