Miami Dolphins QB Chad Pennington has won the Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year award for 2008. It’s the second time he’s claimed the award, when he nabbed it with the Jets in 2006.
Pennington revived a 1-15 Dolphins team and took them to the playoffs with an 11-5 record this season.
“I think in my experience over the last nine years is that when you’re winning, you feel appreciated; when you’re losing, it gets a little tough,” he said. “That’s just part of winning and losing, especially in this league because the stakes are high, a lot of eyes watching you, both individually and as a team.
“I don’t think the appreciation level ever changes, you just have to understand that there’s always going to be highs and lows. And it’s always to the extreme because the middle of the road doesn’t sail and it’s not exciting. The extremes, that’s what’s exciting, and that’s what everybody leans on.”
It’s not tough to imagine that no one was happier to see Pennington come to the Dolphins than first-year head coach Tony Sparano.
“He’s vital to this team, he really is,” Sparano said. “With Chad coming in here and doing what he’s done right now and bringing a bunch of people together, these young players, what he’s brought to them from a leadership standpoint.”
In the award’s 11 seasons, Pennington is the only player to win it twice.
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