Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty has a little extra hardware this year. Petty was named the recipient of the 2014 Seminole Tribe of Florida Bobby Bowden Award, presented by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Sunday morning.
The award is designed to honor the FBS player who best epitomizes a student-athlete base don conduct as role models on and off the field and in the classroom on campus and in the community. It was presented Sunday morning at a special breakfast in Dallas. Petty beat out Indiana safety Mark Murphy and Ole Miss defensive lineman D.T. Shackleford for the award.
“This is meaningful for me for two reasons,” Petty said when accepting the award. “First it’s an award about Christ, and to me that’s the ultimate prize anyway – when we talk about success, it needs to be credited to the One who has enabled us to have success.”
“Second, the platform we have as football players is not to be taken for granted. Too often, players think it’s just about them and get too caught up in thinking that all have the same opportunity and that’s not true. We’ve been given a great opportunity – we need to keep it in perspective – it’s not just about wins on the field, it’s as much about off the field accomplishments.”
Petty may not have seen Baylor’s season end the way he would have liked, but an award like this may show just how special he was to the Baylor program.
