It really is amazing that Tim Lincecum has ever thrown a pitch without it being intercepted by Sean Lee.
Allow me to explain.
On Sunday evening the Pro Bowl for the 2015 NFL season took place. The starting quarterback for “Team Rice” was Eli Manning. Our favorite awkward face’d Giant tossed a pass that was tipped and fell right into the arms of Sean Lee.
As if it wasn’t symbolic enough that the Dallas Cowboys trump the New York Giants, the residents of the Big Apple just couldn’t leave Hawaii without embarrassing themselves just a little but further.
On a fake extra point, this is the Pro Bowl to be fair, Team Rice Kicker Josh Brown (another proud New York Giant) did his best Eli impersonation… literally.
Josh showed the world why his involvement with professional football revolves around the body part as far away from his arm as possible when he went full Eli and threw an interception to Sean Lee.
Lesson of the day? Sean Lee will intercept any Giant: New York, San Francisco, fictional, whatever. He owns them.
Sean Lee owned a lot of people in 2015. He set a career high in tackles with 76 and, despite an “always injured” reputation, started 14 games for the Dallas Cowboys.
Oh and he did all of that after missing the entire 2014 season with a torn ACL (hence the reputation).
“The General” put an exclamation point on his 2015 with his Double Giant Interception (we call that a DGI here at ITS, my name is RJ so I like acronyms a lot…) in the Pro Bowl, but it was no anomaly for the season. Sean’s performance merits some serious consideration for an award that is literally designated for players who have a great year after some type of trial… the NFL’s Comeback Player Of The Year.
Now the overwhelming favorite to win the CPOY is Eric Berry of the Kansas City Chiefs. Berry battled his way back onto the playing field from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The air that Berry breathes in and out every second is a true testament to why he should win this award, throw in his performance in 2015 and it’s a lock. I won’t argue that.
All due respect to Eric Berry, if not for him would this be Sean Lee’s to lose? The national media would, hypocritically, tell you that perhaps Adrian Peterson is worthy of winning it. Peterson did lead the league in rushing yards after missing a majority of 2014 (thanks to some pretty severe child abuse charges that people have conveniently forgotten), and from a strictly football perspective that’s obviously impressive.
Arizona’s Carson Palmer rebounded from the exact same injury that Sean Lee had, and Lee’s Penn State teammate NaVorro Bowman missed all of 2014 with a torn ACL and MCL. Both are worthy nominees, but would they top Lee?
It’s hard to compare Palmer to either equally given that his influence on a game is much larger, but Bowman did lead the NFL in tackles (and Lee significantly). Bowman and Lee tied for the season in sacks (2.5 each), but Lee has him beat in the interceptions category (a whopper of a lead… 1-0).
When considering things fully this award rightfully belongs to Eric Berry, and if it weren’t him it’d be hard to argue against NaVorro Bowman. All I’m saying is Sean Lee deserves some love. He’s certainly in the top five for the award and deserves to at least be a nominee during NFL Honors on Saturday night. Sean was a big reason why the Cowboys were competitive when they were and Cowboys Nation wants him honored in any way that he can be for that effort.
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Where would you rank Sean Lee in terms of the Comeback Player Of The Year candidates? Let me know! Comment below, Email me at Roel.Ochoa.Jr@Gmail.com, or Tweet to me at @rjochoa!
