In the aftermath of Thursday night’s NFL Honors awards show, the Associated Press has made a point of making its voting as transparent as possible.
And while that’s led to some confusion regarding why so many voters selected Josh Allen for MVP but Lamar Jackson for first-team All-Pro, it’s also led to some controversy regarding the voting body, itself.
Taking to X on Friday, the NFL Network’s Peter Schrager called attention to an Associated Press article revealing the 50 media members who vote on the outlet’s NFL awards. And it’s certainly a diverse — if no eclectic — voting body, with ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS, NBC Sports, The Ringer, Pro Football Talk, local newspapers and radio stations, FanDuel TV, The 33rd Team and JoeBucsFan.com among the platforms represented.
Reposting Schrager’s post, the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero noted some of the more unique inclusions to the voting process. And in doing so, he questioned why voters with apparent conflicts of interest — including Fox Sports analyst/Las Vegas Raiders co-owner Tom Brady — have votes, but not anybody from the NFL Network.
“If you’re wondering why the @AP gives votes to people paid by sportsbooks, people from debate shows, people who own parts of NFL teams, people you’ve never even heard of, but nobody from NFL Network…. Yeah, me too,” the NFL insider wrote.
If you’re wondering why the @AP gives votes to people paid by sportsbooks, people from debate shows, people who own parts of NFL teams, people you’ve never even heard of, but nobody from NFL Network…. Yeah, me too. https://t.co/kO3UVEeR5S
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 7, 2025
While one could write Pelissero’s gripe off as sour grapes — and there may very well be some of that here based on the tone of his post — that doesn’t make his argument any less legitimate. Every major media organization (and even some lower profile outlets) covering the league except the NFL Network is represented in the voting body, in some cases, with multiple voters.
While the AP’s argument against including the NFL Network would presumably be avoiding the conflict of interest that allowing the league-owned media outlet to vote on league awards might bring, the inclusion of Brady and entities with NFL endorsement deals such as FanDuel has already opened that box. Ultimately, it is odd that the NFL Network is seemingly the only outlet covering the league that doesn’t have a voice in its award voting and it will be interesting to see if that changes now that Pelissero and others have called attention to it.
