In addition to sharing team MVP honors with Porter, Pennington also earned the Don Shula Leadership Award. He became the fourth player since the award was instituted in 1989 to win it in his first year with the Dolphins. The other three were Cliff Odom in 1990, Fred Barnett in 1996 and Junior Seau in 2003.Also honored on Friday were linebacker Akin Ayodele (Nat Moore Community Service Award) and running back Ronnie Brown (Ed Block Courage Award).
Pennington became the fifth different quarterback to win team MVP honors, following Bob Griese (1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1974); Earl Morrall (1972); David Woodley (1980); and, of course, Marino (1983-92, 1994-95).
This marked the third time the team MVP award was shared: Griese and Paul Warfield shared in 1970; Jason Taylor and Ricky Williams shared in 2002).
As an illustration of the team's make-up over the last several years, Pennington became the first offensive player to win the team leadership award since 1997 when Marino did it.
Since then, the winners had been Zach Thomas (1998-99, 2005); Derrick Rodgers (2000-01); Jason Taylor (2002, 2006-07); and Seau (2003-04).