Chiefs’ Karlaftis Earned Honor He Only Wants Once

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Imagine a boxer entering the ring for a heavyweight tilt once a week and fighting with just one hand.

That’s basically what George Karlaftis endured in 2025. Playing with a thumb injury that forced him to wear a cast on his right hand, the defensive end finished with six sacks, second on the team.

That was a key reason that his teammates at seasons and voted him the teams Ed Block Courage Award winner, announced by the Chiefs on Saturday morning.

Back half of season was frustrating

A 6-4, 263-pound veteran out of Purdue, Karlaftis finished his fourth season in the league in frustrating fashion. The Chiefs shut him down for the Jan. 5 season-finale after seven weeks of agony. He’d already showed them enough in fighting through adversity caused by the thumb injury.

Karlaftis appeared to have sustained the injury just before the bye week, in the 28-21 loss at Buffalo on Nov. 2. Leading the team in sacks by a wide margin at the time of the setback, Karlaftis had just one sack over his final seven games.

Asked about the injury on Dec. 17, with three games remaining in the season, Karlaftis said everything by saying nothing.

“Umm … It's, you know, it’s, yeah,” he replied ahead of the Titans game in Week 16. “You have to find a way to find a way.”

He found a way, playing essentially with one arm tied behind his back over his final seven outings. The cast looked like something out of a Terminator movie, but obviously restricted his ability to be at his best.

Bright side for Chiefs

The silver lining for the Chiefs was that the injury allowed rookie Ashton Gillotte to get more playing time than he likely would have otherwise. Gillotte, voted the team’s rookie of the year on Saturday, played every game and finishing with 1½ sacks, 24 pressures and an interception.

The team’s second of two first-round selections (30th overall) in the 2022 NFL draft, Karlaftis signed a four-year, $93 million extension in July. The first Chiefs defensive lineman to earn the honor since John Browning in 2002, Karlaftis is expected to return to full health for the 2026 season.

Isiah Pacheco won the honor for the Chiefs in 2024.

Each NFL team votes for an annual winner of the award, named after the former Baltimore Colts head athletic trainer. Players are instructed to vote for the teammate that best exemplifies commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage.

Block, a 1937 University of Missouri graduate and World War II veteran, also helped disabled children during his career. Upon his 1977 retirement, Baltimore community leaders launched the award to recognize a Colts player in his memory. Players on other teams began getting recognition in 1984.

Every spring, the 32 honorees receive their awards at a Baltimore event.

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