FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - New England Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli has earned the prestigious George Young NFL Executive of the Year award for the second consecutive year.

The Sporting News magazine annually polls more than 50 NFL owners, general managers, personnel directors and front office executives for the award. This year, Pioli received 19 of the votes. San Diego Chargers vice president and general manager A.J. Smith finished second with nine votes, while Philadelphia Eagles director of personnel Tom Heckert finished third with eight. The award was announced at the NFL owners' meetings in Hawaii.

"This is a humbling honor, a result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people," said Pioli. "I am fortunate to be surrounded by a tremendous support staff. Without them I couldn't do my job."

Pioli, who became the youngest NFL executive to earn the honor a year ago at the age of 38, now joins Bobby Beathard and Bill Polian as the only executives to ever earn the award in consecutive years. Pioli originally joined the Patriots in 2000 and has quickly helped rebuild them into one of the premier teams in the NFL.

This year, the Patriots won their third Super Bowl title in four years to become just the second team in NFL history to ever accomplish the feat. The Patriots also became the only team to win three Super Bowl titles since the current era of NFL free agency began in 1993. In 2001, after the Patriots' first Super Bowl championship in the franchise's history, the Dallas Morning News named Pioli their NFL Executive of the Year.

Last year, in addition to The Sporting News' honor, Sports Illustrated, SI.com, Pro Football Weekly and the San Francisco Chronicle were among the many publications who also recognized Pioli as their NFL Executive of the Year. This year, he has already received the NFLPA Award for Executive Achievement as well as the NFL Executive of the Year awards from USA Today, SI.com and the San Francisco Chronicle.