NFL Season Awards

As I sit here on New Year's Eve waiting for the Saturday NFL games to start, I figured I would give out my awards for the season. I mean everybody else and their mother does so why shouldn't I? I'll hand out your typical awards, like MVP, and some I made up just for spite or love. So let's get to it!!

MVP

Tom Brady-QB New England Patriots

This one was pretty honestly very tough to call. My criteria being that an MVP must be the most valuable player. Not the best, the most VALUABLE. I also prefer that they are on a winning team. I don't care how important you are to your team, if you're only winning 5 games, you may be important, but you're not that good. So it was with that criteria I chose Tom Brady over Shaun Alexander.

Can you imagine where the Patriots would be without Brady? All year they were completely ravaged by injuries, and he put the entire franchise on his back and led them to a division title. Now the team is starting to get healthy and there's that whole "Uh oh" being muttered by every other playoff team in the AFC right now. Nobody wants to play them at the moment. Shaun Alexander has had a great year, but honestly if you put another above average back (Think Rudi Johnson or Thomas Jones) on the Seahawks I think they still finish 11-5 or 12-4. Take Brady off the Patriots and give them Brad Johnson or Jake Delhomme and they go 7-9 (at best.)


OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Shaun Alexander-RB Seattle Seahawks

Now Shaun gets his due. I don't need to say much but his numbers after 15 games. 1,805 yards 27 (TWENTY FREAKING SEVEN!!) touchdowns. He had the type of year that a fantasy owner could have chosen him in the first round and then chosen nothing but fullbacks and third string WR's for his Fantasy team.....and STILL win the league. Now like I said the Seahawks could still be a good team with a slightly worse RB, but they sure as hell ain't 13-2 without him right now. My only question is this, after Alexander finally gets that contract he's been waiting so long for this offseason(whether it be from the Seahawks or whoever) does he still perform like this? I mean it's well known he is very motivated by his own numbers. We all know how he complained last season when Mike Holmgren didn't give him a couple more carries in Week 17 last season so he could take the rushing yards title. Then this year Holmgren kept him in longer than he needed in Week 16 so Alexander could tie the TD record, and you know he'll get goalline carries this week. After he gets paid though will he still have that same desire? I mean it wouldn't be the first time we saw it happen to a player would it? My gut says he likes being the man too much, so even after he gets paid he's still gonna want to do it..but you never know.

Also getting strong consideration for this vote was Chiefs RB Larry Johnson. He only started half the season after Priest Holmes went down and has had an Alexander like tear. I'm pretty sure we can expect about 99.9% (Keeper leagues not included) of fantasy league drafts to go something like #1 Alexander, #2 Johnson next season. I mean there will be the one guy who still drafts Peyton Manning over them. ($50 says he lives in Indiana too.)

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Brian Urlacher-MLB Chicago Bears

How can you not give it to him? He has been the best player on the best defensive team in the league. Yes he has gotten trememdous help from the DLine being so good, but it works both ways. Opposing offensive lines are so busy scheming up ways to get to Urlacher and block him that they have to leave Bears DE's Adewale Ogunleye and Alex Brown in single blocking schemes. Urlacher started the season off with 6 sacks in the first few games. Then the Bears stopped blitzing him so much, and he STILL consumed opposing Offensive coordinators weeks.

Remember last season when the Sporting News said he was the most overrated player in the NFL? Then remember last season when Urlacher spent a lot of time sidelined with a hamstring and the Bears defense (Virtually the same unit they have now.) was not very good and the team was horrible? Well Urlacher was healthy all year and look how things have turned around in Chicago. The point? Sportswriters are idiots.


OFFENSIVE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Carnell Williams-RB Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Pretty easy choice in my opinion. He was the most important rookie offensive player in the NFL and he had the best season of any of them. If the Bucs don't have him this year are they even in contention right now? I don't think so. When Cadillac struggled during the middle weeks of the season, Tampa struggled. When he played well, Tampa played well.

Plus his nickname is Cadillac. He get's the award on that alone.


DEFENSIVE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

Lofa Tatupu-MLB Seattle Seahawks

This one was like the MVP in that it was really tough for me to call. Lofa got the nod in the end though, just cuz I wanted to keep the streak of Samoans who went to USC winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award (Troy Polomalu) alive. I hope one day it rivals Dimaggio's 56 game hit streak. Ok so that's not the only reason. I don't think numbers alone can justify what Tatupu meant to a revitalized Seahawk defense this year. He was a rookie, thrown into the most important position on a defense, and he excelled. Shawne Merriman had a good year with San Diego and has more of the "Wow" factor goin for him, but Tatupu had the better year, and meant more to his defense. Merriman was good, but not good enough to help the Chargers make the playoffs. Merriman may go on to have the better career, but Lofa had the better 2005.


COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Tedy Bruschi-MLB New England Patriots

Who else can you give this too? Brad Johnson? Ya he had a pretty nice season in Minnesota when nothing was expected of him. Joey Galloway? Great season. Looks like he did when he was 25. Steve Smith? Missed the entire season last year, and now had the best 2005 at the WR position. Of course he deserves it.

Did any of those guys have a stroke in the offseason? Yes, that's right...STROKE. I'm not talking on a putting green kind of "Nice stroke" either. I mean "I can't feel the left side of my body" kind of stroke.

No?

Thought so. Then he comes back to play in the middle of this season and is right back to his old self. Giving Brady someone to help take the weight off his shoulders. Not only does Bruschi have the greatest last name of all time (Pronounced Brew-ski, as in "Hey dude toss me a brewski!") but he backs it up with his play. If this guy isn't someone to admire I don't know who is.


COACH OF THE YEAR

Lovie Smith-Chicago Bears

Tony Dungy is a GREAT coach, I know. Tony has Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison, Dwight Freeney, and I can go on and on. Lovie Smith had Kyle Orton.

Even after the Bears got off to a 1-3 start Smith said to his fellow coaches on a flight home from a loss in Cleveland "We're gonna laugh at this at the end of the season when we are in the playoffs after starting 1-3." Teams take on the character of their coach. Lovie never quit, and never let his players quit on him. Trust me, after that loss to Cleveland the Bears had every reason to believe that it was gonna be a BAD year. The headlines in the sports section were all safety Mike Brown's infamous "We suck" comment. They did suck at the time too. Lovie didn't try anything drastic, and saw the pieces were in place. He kept things going the same way and then the Bears ripped off an 8 game win streak and now have secured the NFC North and a first round bye. This from a team that Sports Illustrated had ranked before the season as the 32nd best team (Thats last folks) in the NFL (BELOW THE 49ERS!!!!!!)

My point? Once again SPORTSWRITERS ARE IDIOTS.


Ok now we will get to MY awards.

HOW THE HELL DID YOU LAST THIS LONG IN THE FIRST PLACE AWARD?

Jim Haslett-Head Coach New Orleans Saints

Seriously. I say, and I hear the same exact thing about the Saints every year. "How does a team with that much talent suck so bad year after year?" Well they have absolutely no discipline. Where's that come from? Yep. The head coach. How many times do the Saints have to underachieve for them to fire him? I mean, and I know this sounds bad, but it literally took a huge natural disaster to get rid of Haslett. If Katrina never comes and sends things in disarray for the Saints Haslett may never be on the virge of being fired. The good news is that he won't have a job come Monday evening.


JEKYLL AND HYDE AWARD

San Diego Chargers

Has there ever been a "better" team to be 9-6 at this point? I mean one week they are losing at home to the Miami Dolphins, and the next they are beating the Colts IN Indianapolis. No team in the NFL cost me more money this season than the San Diego Chargers. If they were supposed to come through, they'd fail. When they were supposed to fail, they'd come through.

Another team in consideration for this award was the Dallas Cowboys, who each week looked like a completely different team too.


THE SURE THING AWARD

Chicago Bears and the Under

To go along with the Chargers costing me money, there was no more easy money wager than taking the under in a Bears game. Sometimes parlaying it with the cover too. In 15 games of just taking the under in a Bears game I went 13-2 this season. There was also an 8 week stretch where parlaying the too came through. As if I didn't love this team enough to begin with, then they start making money for me too. I LOVE MY CHICAGO BEARS. (Not to mention player prop bets that went something like Kyle Orton Under 125 yards passing)


THE MOST DEVASTATING INJURY THAT ACTUALLY HELPED A TEAM AWARD

Daunte Culpepper-QB Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings were horrible with their franchise QB, and then great without him. When Daunte went down and the Vikings were already in the tank you could hear all of Minnesota yell "Welcome to Minnesota Reggie Bush!" Wow thinking like that , maybe Culpeppers injury really did HURT the Vikings by helping them win. Crazy league that NFL is.


THE HANG IT UP AWARDS

Brett Favre-QB Green Bay Packers

Curtis Martin-RB New York Jets

Looking at the state of your respective teams, and the state of your respective abilities, just do yourselves a favor and retire. I think Martin is more likely, but both need to. Now not many people have more of a reason to want Brett Favre to retire (In the words of my future brother in law, Joe "He ruined my childhood!!") than me and my fellow Bear fans, but I actually used to ENJOY watching him play. Sure not when it was against the Bears, but as a football fan I don't see how you couldn't enjoy him while he was still Brett Favre. He was great, and watching him now is just really kind of painful. You just sit there and wait for him to throw that back breaking interception(which I had a discussion about with my boss Mark the other day and we both agree that should be a new stat. The BBINT. If for nothing else than so Favre could have ANOTHER record.)

Curtis Martin I have different reasons for. Running backs start to lose it when they get past a certain age. It can't be helped, cuz they are the most battered player on the field. Martin was a very good running back in his career, but at this point I don't see a reason to risk his body for a team that won't be better than 4-12 next year. I mean is one more season of 4-12 something to give up a somewhat pain-free life for after football?



That's it. I hope you enjoyed my awards. If you don't agree, oh well. Remember sportswriters are idiots. You can either post your thoughts here or email me at [email protected]. Have a Happy New Year and I'll see you all next week.