AP awards to be featured in 4 annual NFL Honors

AP awards to be featured in 4th annual NFL Honors

The National Football League will recognize its best players, performances and plays from the 2014 season with a two-hour prime-time awards special -- 4th Annual NFL Honors -- to air nationally on Saturday, Jan. 31, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

For the second year, the newest Pro Football Hall of Fame class will be announced and introduced during the show with the Class of 2015 appearing on stage at Symphony Hall in Phoenix.

Seth Meyers, host of Late Night with Seth Meyers and Saturday Night Live alum, will take the stage as the host of the show the evening before the AFC and NFC champions meet to kick off Super Bowl XLIX.

Joined by current and former players, The Associated Press will announce its annual accolades in an awards show format. NFL Honors, which debuted three years ago in Indianapolis on NBC, is now an annual event from the Super Bowl city. The winners will be on hand to accept their awards.

Kicking off the night will be Super Bowl Saturday Night presented by XFINITY, a red carpet show on NFL Network from 8-9 p.m. ET featuring the sights and sounds of Super Bowl week and many of the stars who will be celebrating the best of the NFL later that evening. For the first time, Super Bowl Saturday Night will feature the presentation of the Don Shula NFL High School Coach of the Year Award.

Among the awards that will be announced will be the prestigious Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award presented by Nationwide, which recognizes a players off-the-field community service as well as his playing excellence. The winner of the inaugural NFL Sportsmanship Award presented by Bose, as voted by his peers, also will be recognized.

Seven of the awards will be from the AP. Those awards, which include AP Most Valuable Player and AP Coach of the Year presented by Lenovo, are voted on at the end of the regular NFL season by a nationwide media panel of 50 people who regularly cover the league. The ballots are tabulated solely by the AP.

The AP is providing the list of honorees to the NFL for the program, and any advertising or sponsorship on the broadcast is being handled separately and independently by the NFL. Microsoft Surface tablets will again replace the award envelopes this year at the NFL Honors. The full list of awards that will be presented will be:

AP Most Valuable Player

Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year presented by Nationwide

AP Coach of the Year presented by Lenovo

AP Comeback Player of the Year

AP Offensive Player of the Year presented by Surface

AP Defensive Player of the Year

AP Offensive Rookie of the Year

AP Defensive Rookie of the Year

Bridgestone Performance Play of the Year

FedEx Air & Ground Players of the Year

NFL.com Fantasy Player of the Year presented by SAP

Greatness on the Road Award presented by Courtyard

Salute To Service Award Presented by USAA

NFL Sportsmanship Award presented by Bose

Deacon Jones Award

Top-Tier Sponsors of 4th Annual NFL Honors include Bose, Bridgestone, Lenovo, Nationwide, Surface, SAP and XFINITY.

Associate Sponsors include FedEx, Courtyard, USAA and Papa John's.

4th Annual NFL Honors is an NFL Network production in association with Dick Clark Productions. For more information about NFL Honors fans may visit http://www.nfl.com/honors and follow the #NFLHonors conversation on Twitter.

Contacts:

Joanna Hunter, NFL, 212-450-2449; Joanna.Hunter@nfl.com

Paul Colford, AP, 212-621-1895; pcolford@ap.org

Chris McCloskey, NBC Sports; christopher.mccloskey@nbcuni.com

LINK:	http://www.ap.org/Content/Press-Release/2015/Seth-Meyers-to-host-fourt...
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