Webb, Adams Win 2010 Picolo Awards
CHICAGO (CBS) On Tuesday, the Chicago Bears announced that J'Marcus Webb and Anthony Adams are the 2010 recipients of the Brian Piccolo Award.
The award is given to annually to a Bears rookie and veteran that best exemplify the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and sense of humor of the late Brian Piccolo. It's an award voted on by the Bears players and was formerly given only to a rookie, but in 1992 was expanded to include a veteran.
Adams started all 16 games for the Bears and is the first defensive tackle to win the award as a veteran since Chris Zorich in 1996. Adams had 36 tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles for the Bears in 2010 season.
Webb, a seventh-round draft pick of the Bears started 12 of 14 regular season games and played in both playoff games. Selected at 218th overall out of Abilene Christian, the 6'7'' 328-pounder is the first rookie offensive lineman to win the award since Todd Perry in 1993.
Piccolo, un-drafted after college, joined the Bears after his senior season at Wake Forest where he led the nation in scoring (111 points) and rushing (1,044 yards).
He was in his fourth season when a chest x-ray revealed a malignancy. Several months later on June 16, 1970, he died at age 26 from embryonal cell carcinoma. At the time Piccolo died, the disease was 100% fatal, but today the cure rate is over 70%. He left behind his wife Joy, three daughters, and legions of friends.
Proceeds from the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund benefit breast cancer research at Rush Medical Center and the Clearbrook Center for the developmentally disabled in Arlington Heights.
