Nick Bosa, Joey Bosa share NFL’s Defensive Player of the Week Honor

In what I am going to go out on a limb and say is the first time in the history of anything, two brothers shared the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Week honors for Week 8, and of course, those players were the Los Angeles Chargers’ Joey Bosa and the San Francisco 49ers’ Nick Bosa.

The former Ohio State stand-outs combined for five sacks, seven tackles for loss, and 11 total tackles on Sunday as the Chargers beat the Chicago Bears 17-16 and the Niners stayed undefeated beating the Carolina Panthers 51-13. Younger brother Joey also had an interception on the game.

These individual, weekly awards have only been around since 1984, and it may shock you to know that two brothers have never shared an honor like this. The Barber Brothers (Tiki Barber and Ronde Barber) have twice won weekly honors (Tiki on offense, Ronde on defense) in consecutive weeks.

Emmitt Smith and Chuck Smith were the NFC’s Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week in Week 10 of the 1998 season, but they aren’t related; ditto for Neil and Darrin Smith in 1994, and Richard and A.J. Johnson in 1989.

Last week’s Offensive Players of the Week were the Pittsburgh Steelers’ James Conner and the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Jones. The Special Teams POtWs were the Indianapolis colts’ Adam Vinatieri and the Minnesota Vikings’ Dan Bailey.

Congrats to both Big Bear and Smaller Bear!