"77"
Hard Hat Award (Game #11, @ Indy)
No one is the winner of the weekly Hard Hat Award, given to the Stiller player who best embodies the iron-tough, hard-as-steel attitude of the steel workers inside the blast furnace of a still mill.
Facing an Indy team that was labled as "soft", "small", and "non physical", no one from the Stillers stepped up and contributed a Hard Hat type of effort. No one. In fact, sadly enough, the Stillers were out-hit, out-toughed, and out-physicalled the entire evening on both sides of the ball.
The Hard Hat Committee did deem 1 player worthy of honorable mention -- Robert Sanders. The diminutive Indy safety from Iowa was a sparkplug terror all night, throwing his body around like a missile and making big hit after big hit. With Willie Parker running to daylight and an easy 1st down deep in Stiller territory in the 2Q, it was Sanders that came flying up like a lightning bolt to upend Parker a couple yards short of the sticks, thus forcing a punt. Later, he toppled Big Jerome Bettis as easy as a rotting sapling on a line plunge. This is the kind of play and effort that wins a player the coveted Hard Hat Award, and it should be no surprise that, lacking anyone worthy of The Award, the Stillers were brutally beaten on Monday evening.
Kudos to no one for winning the weekly Hard Hat Award. Wear your sideways ballcaps proudly, gentlemen.
Past 2005 Hard Hat Winners:
Week 1, vs. Tenn: Willie Parker
Week 2, @ Hou: Troy Polamalu
Week 3, vs. NE: Clark Haggans
Week 4, @ SD: Troy Polamalu
Week 5, vs. Jax: Heath Miller and Ike Taylor
Week 6, @ Cinci: Hines Ward and Ike Taylor
Week 7, vs. Balt.: Andre Frazier
Week 8, @ GB: Duce Staley
Week 9, vs. Clev: Hines Ward and Charlie Batch
Week 10, @ Balt: Aaron Smith
(Note: Stillers.com will pay tribute to Steve Courson this season by placing "77" in the Hard Hat Award article each week. Courson, as most of you certainly recall, was the ultimate Hard Hat kind of player. Tough. Dependable. Versatile. )