American Football: Gannon's accolade crowns milestone year with Raiders

Rich Gannon, the Oakland Raiders quarterback, has won the NFL's Most Valuable Player award, shading Green Bay's Brett Favre.

Gannon won 19 votes from the nationwide panel of 48 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the league, compared to 15 for Favre, the only triple winner of the award. The Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair finished third with 11 votes, with Kansas City's Priest Holmes, Atlanta's Michael Vick and Tampa Bay's Derrick Brooks all on one vote.

Gannon established an NFL benchmark this season for completions (418) and also connected on 21 consecutive passes in a victory over Denver that ended a four-game losing streak and started a five-game winning run.

He also led the league with 4,689 yards passing, helping the Raiders top the AFC West and earn home-field advantage for the play-offs.

The 37-year-old completed 67.6 per cent of his passes for 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while his 97.3 rating was second in the NFL only to Chad Pennington of the New York Jets.

Gannon's 10 300-yard passing games this season set another record. He is one of a select band of quarterbacks to achieve 400 completions, after Warren Moon with 404 in 1991 and Drew Bledsoe with 400 in 1994.

"What I achieved is what the team has achieved," said Gannon. "Without all the skill people, like Tim Brown and Jerry Rice and Charlie Garner, and the tight ends and the other wide receivers and runners and the line, and the coaching staff, I would never be in the position to make those plays."

Gannon, who left Kansas City Chiefs as a free agent in 1999, has thrived at Oakland, where the Raiders had the top-ranked offense this season.

"He has a dimension I haven't seen a quarterback take," said Oakland coach, Bill Callahan. "He's a player that we ask a tremendous amount from. You've seen him improve on a year-to-year basis, this year being his finest as a pro."

Gannon is the third Raiders player to win the award, after Kenny Stabler in 1974 and Marcus Allen in 1985.