Fooch's Note: Jim Harbaugh got 45 votes, Mike McCarthy got three votes, John Fox got two votes. Ummmm...ok?
Coach of the Year votes: Harbaugh 45, McCarthy 3, Fox (?!) 2
— gregg rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) February 4, 2012
The NFL is handing out their postseason awards today, with a tape-delayed show airing on NBC at 9pm ET/PT tonight. However, @nfl is tweeting out the winners, as is half the twitter universe in attendance at the event. The news from Indy is that Jim Harbaugh was named AP NFL Coach of the Year and Von Miller was named AP Defensive Rookie of the Year.
The NFL Coach of the Year award is really not remotely surprising to anybody that watched or read anything related to the NFL in 2011. Jim Harbaugh took a team that struggled in 2010 and had several additions to the roster and helped guide them to a 13-3 season in spite of the lockout preventing any contact for much of the offseason. Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis was a candidate for the award, but really was playing for second place. It's also worth nothing that Alex Smith accepted the award on Coach Harbaugh's behalf. Check out the show at 9pm tonight to see what Alex had to say.
As for Von Miller claiming DROY, it is not surprising. Aldon Smith had a compelling case for the award, but it's not like Miller was some slouch. His candidacy likely benefited from Tim Tebow both in terms of the media coverage of the Broncos, and the fact that many folks were making the argument that the Broncos defense deserved a lot of the credit for the team's turnaround. It was a two-man race as Miller grabbed 39 of the 50 available votes and Smith grabbed the remaining 11.