A week ago we had some discussion over the controversy surrounding Brian Cushing and the Associated Press decision to conduct a re-vote of the 2009 Defensive Rookie of the Year award.
Since then, the new vote occurred and Cushing won the award again with 18 votes. I was against the idea of a re-vote in the first place because of the shoddy nature of it. I believe the AP made this decision without a sufficient number of facts in place, and have moved down a very slippery slope in making such a decision. Nonetheless, what's done is done.
Since then, the 18 Cushing voters have been revealed. 17 voted for him both times, while one changed his vote to Cushing the second time around:
Don Banks, Sports Illustrated.com
Bob Berger, Sporting News Radio
Chris Berman, ESPN
Steve Cohen, Sirius Satellite Radio
Frank Cooney, SportsXChange
Mark Craig, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Tom Curran, Comcast Sportsnet
Vinny Ditrani, The Record
Rick Gosselin, Dallas Morning News
Paul Gutierrez, Sacramento Bee
Clark Judge, CBSSports.com
John McClain, Houston Chronicle
Gary Myers, New York Daily News
Danny O'Neil, Seattle Times
Pete Prisco, CBSSports.com
Adam Teicher, Kansas City Star
Charean Williams Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (changed to Cushing)
This list came courtesy of an intriguing, and also very angry, post by BigBlueShoe over at Stampede Blue. The reason I'm posting this though is a bit more selfish. In writing about what he refers to as the "Cushing 18," BBS went a big step further and suggested 18 new voters to replace people he viewed as disgraces to their profession. Among those 18, he actually included me.
Yes you read that correctly. Head after the link to see why, and also my own thoughts on it.
In suggesting 18 new voters, he went through a broad range of Internet, newspaper and television media members and gave reasons for each to vote. My inclusion was because:
David "Fooch" Fucillo, Niners Nation: David is one of a few SB Nation-related people I'm going to suggest because, quite honestly, more people read SB Nation-associated blogs than anything else. David is also based on the West Coast, and, if you noticed, the list of the Cushing 18 has many voters based on the East Coast. David's a young, intelligent guy who understands the ins-and-outs of the NFL.
First off, I'm obviously very flattered to be included in this list. BBS included three SB Nation bloggers (he did not include himself), which were myself, Jason Brewer from Bleeding Green Nation, and Joel Thorman from Arrowhead Pride. While some day down the road SB Nation might reach a level that our bloggers could get that kind of voting power, I'm certainly not holding my breath. Although, a few months back, our golf blogger became a voting member in the Professional Golf Writers Association. So, there is some precedent for it.
The point of this post isn't as much about the Brian Cushing vote, as it is the idea of inclusion of alternative media in this kind of voting. Whether it be SB Nation, or some other media organization, will alternative media (particularly Internet-based individuals) ever get this kind of "power" if you will?
I'm not saying it's something I necessarily want. It'd certainly be pretty cool to have a vote for league awards as it would obviously add a huge amount of mainstream legitimacy to what we do here. At the same time, NN has legitimacy among 49ers fans and that's really all that matters for me at this point. Nonetheless, broader mainstream legitimacy would be fun to have.