Voting is now open for FedEx Air & Ground Players of the Year, with the winner being announced during the star-studded football and entertainment event "NFL Honors" in San Francisco on Feb. 6 on CBS the night before Super Bowl 50.
Each week leading up to "NFL Honors", we'll take a look at monumental games during the 2015 season for one FedEx Air and one FedEx Ground Player of the Year nominee. This week, we'll kick it off with two veteran players who are racing up the NFL's record books.
Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
One Look Back to Week 8:
Saints 52, Giants 49
Brees and Giants quarterback Eli Manning engaged in a good old-fashioned offensive shootout in what became tied for the third highest-scoring game in NFL history with 101 total points. Brees' record-tying seventh touchdown pass provided the tying score, and New Orleans ultimately won on kicker Kai Forbath's 50-yard field goal as time expired. Brees became the eighth quarterback in NFL history to chuck seven touchdown passes in a single game, joining Nick Foles (Philadelphia Eagles, 2013), Peyton Manning (Denver Broncos, 2013), Joe Kapp (Minnesota Vikings, 1969), Y.A. Tittle (New York Giants, 1962), Adrian Burk (Philadelphia Eagles, 1954) and Sid Luckman (Chicago Bears, 1943).
Brees' season was remarkable. He finished the season with 96 career 300-plus yard passing games, the most of any quarterback in NFL history. He threw for more than 4,000 yards for the 10th consecutive season, extending his own record (no other quarterback had a streak longer than six seasons; Peyton Manning, 1999-2004). Brees also had his sixth consecutive 4,500-yard passing season and seventh overall, both of those marks are NFL records. Brees' 4,870 yards led the NFL in passing for the sixth time, the most of any player in NFL history.
Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings
One Look Back to Week 10:
Vikings 30, Raiders 14
Behind Peterson's record-tying sixth career 200-yard rushing game, the Vikings won a fifth consecutive game and asserted themselves as a legitimate contender to knock off the four-time defending NFC North champion Green Bay Packers from their customary perch atop the division.
Peterson finished the season with a league-leading 1,485 yards rushing. This marked the third time that Peterson had won the NFL's rushing title. In the Super Bowl era, only five players have three or more rushing titles: Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson and O.J. Simpson each have four rushing titles, while Peterson and Earl Campbell each have three. Jim Brown has the most rushing titles in NFL history with eight. All of those aforementioned players -- with the exception of Peterson, of course, because he's still active -- are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Peterson also became the third player 30 years old or older to win a rushing title, joining Marion Motley in 1950 and Curtis Martin in 2004. Both of those aforementioned players are also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
