When it came to naming the annual award that goes to an NFL quarterback based on his performance in the prior season, we’ll admit that we were biased. We don’t personally know many former NFL quarterbacks who have thrown for 500 yards or more in a game, primarily because there are only three of them. And we likewise don’t know many of the top twenty all-time NFL passing yardage leaders, primarily because there are only . . . um . . . twenty of them. But we know Boomer Esiason, and we’ve come to greatly admire what he has done on the field, and off it. Taken in the second round of the 1984 draft after long-forgotten names like Rick Bryan and Ron Faurot and Clyde Duncan and Mike Geundling were called, Boomer became one of the best quarterbacks of his generation, and perhaps of any generation. The only omission from his list of NFL accomplishments is a Super Bowl championship. But it’s not as if he didn’t do his part; the Bengals led the 49ers late in Super Bowl XXIII, and but for some Joe Montana heroics Cincinnati would have been victorious. Esiason’s career in Cincinnati ended too soon, due in large part to the misguided decision to hire David Shula to be the coach, and to draft David Klingler to be the quarterback. But Boomer made it to the Pro Bowl with the Jets in 1993, and three years later he threw or 522 yards, the third highest single-game total ever, as the quarterback of the Cardinals. Esiason finished his fourteen-year career thirteenth on the all-time passing yardage list, ahead of Hall of Famers such as Jim Kelly, Steve Young, and Terry Bradhaw. Along the way, Boomer was the 1988 NFL MVP, the 1995 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, and a four-time Pro Bowler. Esiason’s career after football has been just as impressive. Combining a passionate campaign against cystic fibrosis with a diverse presence in the media, Boomer is far busier now than he was during his playing days, and he has shown no signs of ever slowing down. And so we’ll recognize his accomplishments, and his friendship of the site, by naming the annual award we’ll bestow on one NFL quarterback after him. This year’s winner is Saints quarterback Drew Brees. Yeah, his team didn’t make the playoffs. But, like Boomer in Super Bowl XXIII, it’s not as if Brees was the reason for the team’s failure to qualify. Brees nearly shattered the single-season passing yardage record in 2008, and he continues to prove Chargers G.M. A.J. Smith wrong for drafting a new quarterback in the first round only three years after picking Brees in the second. In giving the award to Brees, we also deferred to the will of PFT Planet. The finalists were Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, and Kurt Warner. Brees was the overwhelming winner -- even though the other two guys played in the Super Bowl. As to Roethlisberger, his second ring in four seasons doesn’t change the fact that his numbers were so-so. (Besides, since Esiason played for the Bengals, it was kind of hard to give it to someone who plays for the Steelers.) For Warner, PFT Planet seems to realize that plenty of other quarterbacks would have put up similar numbers with Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin running the routes and catching the passes. (Besides, since Esiason played for the dysfunctional franchise headquartered in Phoenix, we didn’t want to give him flashbacks.) So Brees is the guy. And if the Saints had a better defense and running game, New Orleans could have been hosting a February event not premised upon the flashing of breasts. Unless Andre Smith had decided to run the parade route without a shirt on.
