Signing into the record books

In an important step on the road to producing the landmark publication XL: Forty Years of the Super Bowl the 34 living Most Valuable Players (MVPs) met over Super Bowl week in Detroit to sign the 400 MVP Special Edition signature pages. The MVP signature page – a unique and totally unprecedented event in the history of sports memorabilia – is certain to become a sought-after collector’s item, with demand for the 400 copies already running high.

Even the signing process itself became a game within a game. The goal? Who could sign all 400 MVP Special Editions the fastest.

Setting the pace was Steve Young, winner of Super Bowl XXIX for the San Francisco 49ers, who raced through the pages in 42 minutes flat without breaking a sweat. But with no time to rest on his laurels, up stepped the legendary Joe Montana, three times MVP and also from the 49ers, who proceeded to smash Young’s opening record by signing all 400 signature pages in a staggering 22 minutes.

By this time the quarterbacks were making their mark, and New England Patriot’s Tom Brady, youngest ever MVP at the age of 24, flexed his muscles by posting a staggering time of 18 minutes and 50 seconds! This proved the time of the day, and has gone down in Opus history as a record within a record.

The history of the MVP goes right back to 1938 when the NFL began awarding the Joe F. Carr Trophy (Carr was league president from 1921-39) to the league’s most valuable player, and continued to do so until 1946. Since that time, the NFL’s Most Valuable Players and Players of the Year have been named by a variety of sources including some of the top football publications. It’s become something of an institution, and rivalry is fierce among players to win the award.