Your 2008 Dan Fouts Award Winner is....

by John Gennaro on May 13, 2009 5:03 PM PDT Comment 2 comments

....Jamal Williams.

After rehabbing from offseason knee surgery, and in the later half of the year playing on knees that he knew would need another surgery in the following offseason, big Jamal still managed to be a force in the center of the defense. As the season wore on Jamal seemed to get stronger, angrier and eventually showed himself to the fans as a leader with his "Game Over" proclamation.

Going into 2009 the Chargers have complete and total faith in only a handful of players, like most NFL fans we fear the speedy decline of a player's talent or health in any given year. Those players that we know will be okay in 2009 are Cooper, Jammer, Williams, Dielman, Hardwick and Rivers. Everyone else has either a question of character (VJ), health (Merriman, McNeil, LT, Cro, Castillo) or talent (Forney, Hart, rookies). Going into 2008 the list was almost completely different but certainly included Williams. The same in 2007, 2006, 2005, etc. going all the way back to 2002. Jamal not only plays the most important position in the defense, he plays it well and he plays it with unmatched consistency in the league and on the team.

The fact that these last two seasons have been the two he's gotten paid the least amount for since his rookie contract may just be the way his current contract is set up (front-loaded), but when you're looking at one season by itself I don't know that it's possible to find anyone in the league who is not on a rookie deal, was such a big part of his team's success and such a small part of their payroll. In 2008, the money paid to Jamal Williams was certainly money well spent. And after taking over 40% of the three-man vote, its obvious that you fans feel the same as I do.

Congratulations go out to Jamal Williams for being such a valuable asset to the team in 2008 and we wish him even more success in the upcoming season.

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I'll bite

so why is it called the Dan Fouts award? I understand that Fouts was great, but was he underpaid?

by Stephen (shaynes41) on May 14, 2009 7:49 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Hahaha

I didn’t have a legitimate reason really. I was just wondering how our curious fanbase let that go without asking why.

I also found it kindof ironic, because when you look at players from 20-30 years ago it’s unbelievable how little they got paid in comparison to what players get paid now, but Fouts was one of the first players to think they NFL players deserved more. He held out over contract disputes and I believe at one point early in his career he even sued to try and get away from the Chargers to get with a “super bowl caliber team” to make more money from endorsements and so forth.

So basically, I found it funny because Fouts cared more about money than anyone in his era and if you compare him to what players make now he still seems grossly underpaid.

"I did not invent the wheel, I was the crooked spoke adjacent." - Aesop Rock

by John Gennaro on May 14, 2009 8:36 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs