In his acceptance speech for winning the NFL's Most Valuable Player award last Thursday, Josh Allen dismissed it as an individual accolade. He said the honor was "derived from team success."
"It takes everybody," Allen said. "From the equipment staff to the training room to the strength staff ... to 'Slick Rick' in the mailroom to the cafeteria upstairs. It truly takes everybody to have team success. I'm so fortunate to be part of a great organization."
Allen's shoutouts were genuine. They were especially heartwarming for one Bills employee who never expected to hear his name on television, much less by Buffalo's star quarterback during a defining moment of his career.
"Slick Rick" is Roderick Morrow, who has worked in the Bills mailroom for about 15 years. He told WKBW-TV in Buffalo that he was going to cry if Allen didn't take home the MVP award "because he deserves it — he's that important to our team."
"When he mentioned my name, I just broke down," Morrow said. "I broke down because I'm just an average person. When he mentioned my name, I'm like, 'Oh my God, he just mentioned my name on national television.' So it was like, I was just crying. I was crying, then I started to get phone calls from my friends."
Morrow began to get emotional again recalling the moment. "It's still like a dream," he said.
The lesson from Morrow's story: Don't ever think those awards show speeches don't have any true meaning. They do. And "Slick Rick" is proof that the winner's remarks can truly resonate.