At the 2021 NFL Honors ceremony, Pittsburgh Steelers OLB T.J. Watt became the 8th player in franchise history to win the Defensive Player of the Year honors. It did not come easy for Watt who was clearly facing the "Anti-Steelers" bias. Watt snubbed in back-to-back years and was not considered in the running in 2021 until his 3.5 sack game vs. the Baltimore Ravens.
The Anti-Steelers bias is the egregious sentiment where the panel of sportswriters that decide these awards - which can have a lasting impact on a players legacy - and vote based on personal bias to prevent a franchise steeped in lore from attaining more. There is no more glaringly obvious example of this on display than in the case of Ben Roethlisberger going his entire career without a single vote for MVP while some voter (Rich Gosselin) cast ballots for Tony Romo and Dak Prescott.
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Watt finished 2nd in the voting to Aaron Donald in 2020, despite twice being recognized as NFL Defensive Player of the Month and outpacing him in every meaningful metric including sacks, TFL, and QB hits. Considering what Watt had accomplished and was facing, it was obvious it was going to take something historically good for Watt to sway the vote.
So Watt went out and tallied 22.5 sacks in only 15 games to tie the single-season sack record set by Michael Strahan in 2001. It could not be any more clear that Watt was the Defensive MVP in 2021 and the voting broke through the Anti-Steelers bias of all but a handful of voters with a landslide win.
Pro Football Reference
Curious though, is it not, that Micah Parsons registered 5 votes when the comparison isn't even close? It's pretty obvious that someone down in Dallas is not shy about letting their bitterness and favoritism show through.
What do you think of Watt breaking through the Anti-Steelers in the landslide fashion he did? Leave a comment below.
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