The Seattle Seahawks won their second Super Bowl in franchise history, defeating the New England Patriots with Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Before the season, the team decided to make Smith-Njigba a focal point of their passing offense. The Ohio State product rewarded them by leading the NFL with 1,793 yards. Accolades flooded in, with one catching the attention of social media.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba Receives Misspelled OPOY Award
Seattle rode the arm of quarterback Sam Darnold and the route running of Smith-Njigba to a championship. In recognition of his strong season, he was awarded the Offensive Player of the Year Award.
However, when the Seahawks wideout received the hardware, it read ” Defensive Player of the Year.” Cleveland Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett actually won that award, and social media did not take kindly to the mistake.
“I honestly think the NFL needs to issue an official apology,” opined John Frascella. The award recognizes the best offensive performance in football at the highest level. The league awarded the trophy publicly. Hence, some believe the apology should also be public.
I honestly think the NFL needs to issue an official apology… https://t.co/fpjKEEVIqz
— John Frascella (Football) (@NFLFrascella) May 19, 2026
“I wonder if Myles’ plaque said Offensive Player of the Year?” mentioned The Dawgs Podcast, humorously assuming that Garrett might have received the award meant for Smith-Njigba. While comical, the gaffe does appear rather embarrassing for a league that prides itself on optics.
“This is beyond embarrassing for the NFL. A billion-dollar company can’t even get a simple trophy right,” wrote Bryce DeGroat on X. The NFL possesses billion-dollar deals with major networks, spreading its games onto multiple platforms. However, DeGroat attests that something that looks seemingly basic is something they failed on.
Damn first Druski hijacked the award announcement, now this. JSN can’t catch a break with this OPOY award lol https://t.co/nzg60MZwEZ
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) May 19, 2026
Comedian/influencer Druski, during the NFL Honors ceremony, decided to use Smith-Njigba’s name as a joke, omitting/flipping letters that spoke a slur.
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Not only did the NFL write the wrong award name, but they also struggled with spacing. Smith-Njigba, in a subsequent Instagram post, seems tired of what he perceives as disrespect.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s award is also missing a space between “the year,” so it now incorrectly reads “theyear.”
This was the subsequent picture JSN posted of himself in response to the bizarre plaque he received.
(📸 @jaxon_smith1) https://t.co/2yGImq3GSo pic.twitter.com/mpvg0ljXLu
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) May 19, 2026
“Bad look for the NFL. At least they spelled his name “Jaxon Smith-Njigba” correctly. A good… defense is the best offense?” said Joshua Cho.
According to PFSN’s WR Impact Metric, last season Smith-Njigba posted an impact score of 94.4, which ranks as the seventh-best output among all receivers since the 2019 NFL season.
However, first at the NFL Honors and now with a misspelled trophy, the league hasn’t done a great job of celebrating Smith-Njigba’s success. Hopefully, in the future, the league will be able to find a way to keep minor errors from becoming major stories.
