NFL Awards

The NFL season is down to the grand finale, the enchilada grande, the whole ball of yarn, or as some call it, the Super Bowl. We’ll spend the off week looking back at the season, not wasting time with an exhibition game that most of the players don’t even want to go to. Hooray Pro-Bowl. It was a great season in the NFL in 2010. Some surprising teams, spectacular plays, and tremendous performances made each week seem like you couldn’t miss it. And who can forget the scandals. The season was like a soap opera but was actually cool to watch the storyline unfold. The SportStew enjoyed the season and we wanted to announce our award recipients for the season. Here’s who we like...

MVP: Tom Brady
Why? Brady tossed 36 touchdown passes, only 4 interceptions, and led the NFL with a QB Rating of 111. He’s married to a super model, Gisele, who’s PFH. That’s TLA for “pretty hot.” Plus, Brady is growing his hair out for his starring role in the reboot of Hanson’s MMMBop.

Best Offensive Player: Arian Foster
Why? Foster scored 18 touchdowns (16 rushing and 2 receiving) and led the NFL with 1616 yards rushing. He was mostly ignored in the preseason fantasy football drafts but was the biggest fantasy football pickup after his Week 1 performance.

Best Defensive Player: Clay Matthews
Why? Matthews tallied 13.5 sacks, 5 tackles for loss, 2 forced fumbles, and an interception, which he returned for a score, on the season. Matthews got the nod over guys like Harrison and Mayo, because he is the best candidate to team up with the Rams’ James Laurinaitis to form the New Age Road Warriors and win the WWE title. And his hair even has a twitter account.

Dynamic Offensive Rookie: Sam Bradford
Why? Bradford kept the Rams in the playoff hunt until the final week while throwing for over 3500 yards and 18 touchdowns. Really there wasn't anybody else.

Dynamic Defensive Rookie: Ndamukong Suh
Why? Suh attempted an extra point for the Lions, due to an injury, but missed. Actually Suh led all rookies with 10 sacks. He also amassed 66 tackles, an interception, and found the end zone on a fumble return. Ndamukong means “House of Spears.”

Coach of the Year: Raheem Morris
Why? The Buccaneers almost snuck into the playoffs from a division that had three 10 win teams. Morris had 10 rookies that started a game this season. "Stats are for losers, so you keep looking at stats and we'll keep looking at wins."

Only one more week until the eight hour pregame show is on. Enjoy the game.

NFL Championship Game Picks

We have 4 teams left in this game of musical chairs. Who's going to punch their tickets for Super Bowl XLV in Dallas? Well, let me tell you.

Lets start in the AFC where the Rex Ryan's visit Pittsburgh. As entertaining as Ryan is, he sure can be a jackass. The Jets have really stepped up the past two weeks and knocked out two of the top quarterbacks in the game with their upset wins over the Colts and Patriots. Can the defense continue? Can you underdog pull off three in a row? I'm not sure if the Jets can get up for this one. After two weeks of "We hate these guys" and tons of trash talk, the Jets are actually showing the Steelers respect. Speaking of the Steelers, Big Ben's face has packed on a ton of weight. Reminds me of how Barry Bonds' head grew to enormous proportions. Not that I'm implying anything. The Steelers' defense is loaded also and leads the league in fines. That's definitely gonna help. The defenses will cancel each other out in this matchup and the Steelers have a better and more balanced offense. Look for the Steel Curtain to force some turnovers by Sanchez and the Steelers should be able to control the clock with their running game. Pittsburgh is favored by 3.5 point, take them to cover.

That brings us to the NFC. A legendary battle between the Packers and the Bears. This is another matchup of some great defenses and talented quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and Jay Cutler. Ha ha, I just called Cutler a talented quarterback. Cutler is also an inconsistent, whiny crybaby. When comparing these teams, the defenses stand out on both. Clay Matthews is awesome and someone I would love to drink beers with. The guy doesn't quit. The Bears will need Forte and the rushing game to help control the clock and help take the pressure off of Cutler. The Bears get the nod on special teams too. In the end, Cutler folds like a lawn chair and makes the game deciding mistake. It kills me, but the Pack wins by 10, covers, and makes reservations in Dallas.

Enjoy the games, the beers, and the tailgate food!

UFC 125 Picks

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is getting ready for their big New Year’s Day event, are you? UFC 125: Resolution is set for this weekend at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Vegas. The fight card has a lot of fan favorites and some great matchmaking. Seems like something is missing with no HW bouts but with exciting fighters like Chris Leben, Clay Guida, and Nate Diaz complementing the title fight, I’m pumped. Even the under card is loaded with Josh Grispi and Mike Thomas Brown making the move from the WEC and Stephens-Davis should be a slug fest. What’s with the UFC choosing Resolution for this event though? Resolution seems like the ending of a trilogy or a controversial ending. Whatever? The UFC creative department has always failed when coming up with event names anyway. While the card is stacked, the main event for the Lightweight Title is a fight I could miss and it wouldn’t pain me. Here's my predictions of UFC 125 and enjoy the fights...

UFC Lightweight Championship.
Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard. Maynard has handed Edgar his only loss. Edgar is making his 2nd title defense and has been the underdog in both, as well as when he won the title. Look for Maynard to his his superior wrestling to take down Edgar and control the fight. We'll hear many boos form the crowd and Maynard will win a boring decision.

Chris Leben vs. Brian Stann. Both fighters like to throw lumber and this will be fun to watch. Leben is more the more rounded fighter and uses one of my favorite moves, the foot stomp. That has got to hurt. Look for a late TKO for Leben after Stann tuckers out.

Thiago Silva def. Brandon Vera by TKO
Clay Guida def. Takanori Gomi by decision
Nate Diaz def. Dong Hyun Kim by controversial decision
Josh Grispi def. Dustin Poirier by submission (RNC)
Jacob Volkmann def. Antonio McKee by submission (armbar)
Jeremy Stephens def. Marcus Davis by decision
Mike Thomas Brown def. Diego Nunes by TKO
Daniel Roberts def. Greg Soto by decision
Brad Tavares def. Phil Baroni by submission (RNC)

Championship Week

The season is winding down. This is the last week with a good slate of games before bowl season. On one hand, why would we need to gamble on games that are already some of the most exciting of the year? But on the other hand, we need to pad the bank account going into bowl season. Because if you aren't gambling on the The Human Fund Bowl presented by Wireless Pros's and brought to you by SMAC Inc, then why the hell would you be watching it. So take these 4 games and then get ready for bowl season...which starts in about 2 weeks!

Virginaia Tech -3.5 Talk about what might have been. Call it the curse of Boise St. Lose a close opening game to Boise, then get beat by a school from a smaller division, but then win the rest of the games on your schedule. Sound familar Oregon (does this make Va Tech the favorite for next year...remember this)? Va Tech seems to be snake bitten by Florida St recently, but this is the season they seem to put all that behind them. Va Tech wins, then wins thier bowl game, thus leaving fans wondering just what the fuck happened in week 2.

Oklahoma -4 It's kind of cool as a child of the 80's to see this game on championship week again. A classic rivalry. However talk about lesser of two evils. I'm so sick of Bob Stoops and bitching, that I could almost root for Nebraska....until you meet thier fans. And coach Bo is no picnic either. Nebrask hasn't shown up in a big game yet, so take the Sooners to cover this one and probably big time.

Auburn -4.5 After last week how can we doubt this team? The Ole BAll Coach has a knack for keeping these games close, but in the 4th expect to see Auburn run away with it. As a side note, the only thing that could screw this up would be Auburn just not caring since they should be into the BCS game regardless.

Oregon -16.5 I'm going reverse psychology on this one. 16 points is a lot for ther Civil War but this isn't your typical Ducks team. They light it the Hell up! I'm dying for one of these teams to lose and get TCU into the BSc title game only because this is what will change the system. And between the 2 this is the game more likely for an upset in my opinion. But evey time I have thought that this year, the Ducks come out quackin and kickin ass.

So there it is. I like these picks so don't be afraid to go with a 3 team parlay then use the 4th game to hedge your bets. See ua in the Bowl Season!

NCAA Week 12

So a couple of the "Big Boys" aren't playing this week. That's the beauty of gambling. Every game is a big game! It's the only reason a shit NFL game on a Sunday night can out draw a Worl Series game. Football is the ultimate gambling sport. And if you've been taking our advice, you got a little change in your pocket at this point in the year. Don't press yet, let those winnings build up and get ready for bowl season. Here's a few more picks to add to the winnings.

Nebraska -2 Nebraska has clearly scared a few people away with that bad loss against Texas and then not showing up against a couple lesser teams, but that happens in the course if a season with college kids. Add a big game and the stretch run going to the Big 12 Championship and I think you get Nebraskas best effort.

Virginia Tech -2 You can almost cut and paste what we just said about Nebraska to the Va Tech team. Obviously Va Tech fell off the radar screen early in the season, but they've been kicking ass since then. Consider this a statement game for Virginia Tech to beat Miami. There have been some great battles with bthese 2 schools and they seem to take it personal. But only 2 points? Let's go Va Tech!

Purdue +20.5 Here we go with the Big 10 part of our lesson. Purdue is just under the radar as a team on the rise and they've blown out a couple times but they seem to hang around in most games. I think Mich St wins, but 20.5 point just feels like too many.

Michigan +4 I actually think Michigan can pull this game off. Wisconsin on the road against a decent offensive team automatically says close game. That and I believe in Karma, and the bullshit run up the score act that Wisconsoin pulled last week has to be paid back. Not sure why the media seem to like coach Balemia but Big 10 fans think he's a dick and he showed why last week.

Ohio St -3 We actually took this game and put it on our board when the season began because the line was 3.5 and we thought it would be double figures by the time the game rolled around. Well it dropped a half and we have no idea why. But it would be just like Iowa to win the big game and leave us wondering how the fuck we lost to Northwestern. The season is technically a disappointment but a 4th loss makes it a major problem in a season when the Hawks were considered a dark horse for a National title. Need a big win here and a good bowl win to keep the Kirk Ferentz hype alive.