Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba received his NFL Defensive Player of the Year award trophy on May 18. You read that right.
Smith-Njigba – who won the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year award for the 2025 – was evidently given a mislabeled trophy. The award he received stated he was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year for 2025, as he shared in a video posted to his Instagram story on May 18.
Advertisement
“It’s getting disrespectful guys,” Smith-Njigba said, while holding his trophy up to the camera.
The award also featured a typo, in which “TheYear” was combined into one, with no space between.
“C’mon bro. One word? Man,” he added.
Smith-Njigba followed up his video post with a close-up image of his face with his eyes closed that was captioned as follows.
“Just keep the award at this point,” the 24-year-old receiver wrote. “Leave it in the history books, tho (sic).”
It wasn’t immediately clear whether any other award-winners had encountered issues similar to Smith-Njigba’s or if his trophy typo was merely a one-off.
Advertisement
That said, the mistake was the second time Smith-Njigba has been slighted in connection to his Offensive Player of the Year award.
Druski struggled badly to pronounce Smith-Njigba’s last name when announcing the wide-out as the winner of the award at the 2026 NFL Honors, an incident for which the comedian has since apologized.
Smith-Njigba earned the major award – his first-ever at the NFL level – after a breakout third season that saw him make 119 catches for an NFL-leading 1,793 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. He also helped the Seahawks win Super Bowl 60, posting 17 catches for 199 yards and two touchdowns during their three playoff games.
Smith-Njigba was handsomely rewarded his performance, as he earned an extension that made him the NFL’s highest-paid wide receiver, but he will certainly be hoping to be granted a bit more respect as he enters his fourth season.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jaxon Smith-Njigba slams NFL for ‘disrespectful’ award typo
