Seattle Seahawks star Jaxon Smith-Njigba established himself as one of the best receivers in the league last season. Yet, three months on from his Super Bowl win, he has been left disrespected by the NFL.
The 24-year-old was crowned the Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year for his impressive display last season. The only issue? That’s not what his trophy said.
Upon receiving his commemorative plaque for the achievement, Smith-Njigba noticed a glaring error.
According to his trophy, the wideout somehow managed to claim the 2025 defensive player of the year award – despite playing on the opposite side of the ball.
Smith-Njigba exposed the embarrassing error in a video shared to social media, venting his frustration.
‘I really want to expose them. It’s getting disrespectful, guys,’ he said, holding the plaque up to the camera.
Super Bowl winner Jaxon Smith-Njigba slammed the NFL s ‘disrespectful’ in a video
He revealed that his award for Offensive Player of the Year contained a glaring error
The 24-year-old was crowned the 2025 Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year
He then pointed to the word ‘Defensive’ and said, ‘Defense? Come on, bro.’
Yet, unbelievably that was not the only typo on the trophy, with Smith-Njigba then pointed to ‘Theyear’ with a missing space, adding, ‘One word? Man.’
Smith-Njigba followed up the video with a close-up selfie, writing: ‘Its getting disrespectful at this point. Just keep the award at this point. Leave it in the history books tho.’
The voting for the end of year of awards is conducted by the Associated Press with the winners being announced at the NFL Honors ceremony during Super Bowl week.
However, it is the NFL, not the Associated Press, who takes responsibility for crafting and distributing the physical awards to the winners, according to Pro Football Talk.
It was not the first time that Smith-Njigba has been slighted in connection with his triumph in the award.
Comedian Druski was called upon to deliver the NFL Offensive Player of the Year award to the Seattle Seahawks wide receiver during the ceremony in February.
However, as he read out the card, the comedian mispronounced Smith-Njigba’s name and said the N-word instead, sparking major backlash on social media.
NFL legend Barry Sanders was stood alongside the social media personality and appeared to grimace as Druski mispronounced the name.
