The NFL Players Association has opened up voting for the 2012 NFL PULSE Awards and our own Alex Smith is nominated for Comeback Player of the Year. The award "celebrates a player who has overcome obstacles, adverse situations and/or injury with a spectacular comeback performance."
I suppose some would argue for players that were playing at a high level before, but considering the expectations of being the number one draft pick, this qualifies as a plenty solid comeback to to the top of the mountain. Given how the last six years have gone, he really has overcome obstacles, adverse situations AND injury. Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers coaching staff deserve plenty of credit in Alex Smith's transformation/return/whatever, but Alex deserves plenty of credit both for figuring things out and also being willing to come back to a city that might as well have burned him in effigy at one point.
You can vote up to five times a day, so head over and vote when you get a minute. You can also vote on awards for the "Emerging Player, "Heart of the Game" and Heart. I went with Andy Dalton as Emerging Player because I suspect he'll be overlooked by the flash of the other players. I went with London Fletcher for Heart of the Game and Ronde Barber for Endurance.
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