Eagles Nominate Fletcher Cox For Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award

Fletcher Cox was nominated by the Eagles for the NFL’s annual Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award, recognizing good sportsmanship on the field.

The announcement came via an NFL release that listed the 32 nominees from all NFL teams. Each team was allowed to nominate one player for the award, named for Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney, Sr.

“Sportsmanship is the core of the game, the vanguard of public confidence, the keeper of game integrity,” said Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations and former Eagles defensive back, in a statement. “These Rooney Sportsmanship Award nominees exemplify the spirit of fair play and the values of respect, integrity, commitment to team and resiliency at the highest level of competition.

An Eagles spokesperson shared that it is an organizational nomination for this award, though players themselves were not involved in the selection of the team’s nominee. Some of the factors that went into the selection include his respect for the game of football and the teams involved, mentorship of younger players, and his status as a six-time team captain.

Cox has consistently received praises from the team regarding these facets, especially his mentorship and football expertise.

“We know as [Run Game Coordinator/Offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland] Stout will go ask Fletch a question, I’ll ask Fletch a question schematically or whatever it has to do with on defensive line play, and he’s just such an intelligent player,” Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni said during a press conference last season. “Fletch is just such an intelligent player, you go and talk to him about things so you can grow as an offensive coach and you can grow as an offensive player and you can grow as an offensive scheme….We’re not looking for Fletch to put in many plays for us or anything like that, but bouncing things off of him, but his main expertise is being a defensive lineman in the NFL.”

“Fletcher has been dominant for a long time, and I think it’s a credit to Fletcher and how he prepares his body and his mind for a season,” Eagles Defensive Coordinator Sean Desai commented earlier this season. “I think the young guys really need to take notice of that. If they want to have a long career like Fletcher really learn and take some notes on how to go about doing that.”

Cox’s status as a six-year captain is also a testament to this. Sirianni said that all captains got voted by their teammates to lead the team on the field.

“[The captains’] role as captain is they got voted a captain for a reason,” Sirianni remarked shortly after the season’s captains were announced, “and it’s to lead the way they lead. They’ve been voted by their peers as captains. So it is, ‘go lead the way you lead.’”

The NFL, through a panel of former players, will narrow down the list of 32 nominees to eight finalists before a player vote will be conducted to determine the award winner. The winner will be announced at the NFL Honors, shortly before Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, NV.