2012 WROTC NFL Awards

Time has flown by and the NFL regular season is over.  Playoffs and the march to New Orleans is on.  Time to hand out some awards.  This is the 3rd Edition of the WROTC NFL Awards.  Enjoy!

Play of the Year

Matt - Russell Wilson's game winning interception...errr Touchdown

Wendt - Golden Tate's game winning TD against the Packers
Painter - Fail Mary - showed how unprepared the replacement officlas were

Blake - Russell Wilson to MD Jennings to Golden Tate

Zach - Fail Mary

Game of the Year

Matt - Packers at Vikings - Week 17 - So much on the line for both teams, Peterson and the NFC Playoff picture.  They didn't disappoint.   

Wendt - Houston over Detroit (Turkey Day game)

Painter - Green Bay at Seattle (good battle despite the bad officiating both ways)

Blake - San Francisco vs New England - SNF 

Zach - San Francisco vs New England - SNF

Offensive Player of the Year

Matt - Adrian Peterson - Vikings - What he's done this year after surgery is amazing.

Wendt - Peyton Manning - Broncos

Painter - Adrian Peterson - Vikings

Blake - Peyton Manning - Broncos

Zach - Adrian Peterson - Vikings

Defensive Player of the Year

Matt - JJ Watt - Texans - I'd love to give it to a Bear like Jennings or Tillman, can't though.  

Wendt - JJ Watt - Texans

Painter - JJ Watt - Texans

Blake - Aldon Smith - 49ers

Zach - Charles Tillman - Bears

Special Teams Player of the Year

Matt - Brandon Fields - Dolphins - 50 yd avg on punts and 26 inside the 20

Wendt - Blair Walsh

Painter - Blair Walsh

Blake - None have really stuck out.  Maybe Greg Zuerlein

Zach - Jacoby Jones - Texans

Rookie of the Year

Matt - RG3 - Redskins - A pure spark to that team and organization.  Luck and Wilson are right there too.

Wendt - Andrew Luck - Colts

Painter - hate to go with a QB but RGIII (Casey Hayward would be my vote for defensive rookie)

Blake - Tough one, but I'll go Andrew Luck.  Can't go wrong with RG3 either.

Zach - Andrew Luck - Colts

Coach of the Year

Matt - The Colts Staff - What they've done with a team that sucked last year, a rookie QB is amazing.

Wendt - Mike Shanahan - Redskins

Painter - Bruce Arians - Colts

Blake - As much as it pains me to say it, Pete Carroll.  Bruce Arians 2nd if you consider him eligible.

Zach - Entire Colts Staff

Most Impactful Injury

Matt - Alex Smith getting knocked out and thus getting Wally Pipped by Collin Kaepernick.

Wendt - Kevin Kolb - Cardinals

Painter - Brian Urlacher (the Bears win at least 1 more game and make the playoffs with him)

Blake - For once I'm not sure there has been a defining one, especially coming off the blood bath that was last year.  Maybe Ray Lewis or Brian Urlacher

Zach - Alex Smith's concussion leading to Collin Kaepernick starting

Biggest Surprise

Matt - Seattle's offensive explosion.  The Bengals with Andy Dalton in back to back playoffs.  The Bears go from 7-1 to home for the playoffs at 10-6.

Wendt - Indianpolis Colts

Painter - Minnesota Vikings making the playoffs

Blake - In some order; Saints suck, Colts are decent, Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning, the Seahawks are pretty darn good.

Zach - Adrian Peterson resurgent return post-injury

Biggest Disappointment

Matt - The Steelers and Giants not making the post season, Philly's collapse too.

Wendt - Kansas City Chiefs

Painter - Tie:  Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears (hot starts, cold finishes)

Blake - Again, in some order; the Saints suck, and so do the Giants and the Steelers

Zach - New Orleans Saints season

ESPN has killed January 1st

January 1st used to be something HUGE and special to college football. Now though the teams are a little better, it’s just another December 27th, and that’s thanks to the Mothership.


Waking up on New Year’s used to be about watching the Rose Parade, eating a nice late breakfast, waiting for the ham and bean soup to be ready during the Rose Bowl, and also stacking four tvs on one another to make sure you didn’t miss all the action of every bowl. It was like an NFL Sunday for college fans. And when you woke up January 2nd you had a national champion and didn’t have to wait a week or 10 days later.

That feeling and excitement has now been killed by ESPN. Their greed to have control over every bowl game (but 2) and build in programming has diminished and a great college football tradition.

Back in the day (No I’m not that old) the lineup would be Fiesta, Rose, Cotton, Sugar, Orange all on the same day. Then add in the Gator, Outback and Capital One. Usually all the games had really good teams in them too so its not like you had a bad game. Sure there are some blowouts, it happens, but THAT was a great time. Flipping back and forth if you only had one tv or watching all of them with buddies. Heck it was March Madness for college fans.

Hell now its all on one or 2 channels, and not even broadcast channels or the same day. You get Rose at its traditional late start then another top tier game after it. Before the Outback and Cap1 and Gator all spread out on different Disney owned stations. I know they want all eyes on every game to maximize ratings and get a better ad buy rate, but how many people want to watch a Big East team? Or MAC team? FSU-NIU was close till the late 3rd quarter and then how many drifted off. Wouldn’t it have been nice to flip over to a different primetime game?

And then these games that are on the 3rd or 4th, how many people get those days off regularly to go to the games. January 1st is a norm. Add in the winter holidays and its great. The Orange Bowl even has said that the later games get played away from January 1st affects the actual attendance. So don’t move further away from the 1st, go back to it.

ESPN/ABC and Disney, along with Fox, have the ability to bring this great. FOX needs to be a player (and I think they will be) and get some more big time bowls and college football. They could compete with ESPN and battle back and forth. ESPN has 3 outlets that it can showcase games on. Who wouldn’t like to wake up and have this staring at them in the face?

You can fill in the Heart of Dallas or GoDaddy bowl there too. But that day would be great. Not everyone watches every NFL game. Not everyone watches every college bowl game. This would be a great day! I don’t care if you want to play the Championship Game on the 2nd, fine, but give us back January 1st!

2012 College Football Awards

The college football season is close to being over.  Most all the awards have been awarded except the National Championship.  Before the Tide and Irish clash in Miami, here are the GFR College Football Awards.

LYNCH - TE'O - SNYDER - MILLER - KLEIN

Offensive Player of the Year - Jordan Lynch - QB - Northern Illinois : Lynch put up better numbers than Johnny Heisman, has the Huskies on a 12 game win streak, MAC Champions, oh and playing in the Orange Bowl.  He also lead the nation in rushing (going into bowl season) with 1771 rushing yards.  He also tossed the ball for 2962 yards and accounted for 43 Huskie touchdowns.

Defensive Player of the Year - Manti Te'o - LB - Notre Dame : I don't know if any player meant more to their team than Te'o did this year.  Not only did he make big plays in big games and key situations, he IS the heart and soul of this year's Irish.  If Te'o isn't there the Irish are probably and 8-4 team.  Instead they are 12-0 and playing for the BCS Championship.  Te'o had 7 picks for the Irish and 93 tackles and 1.5 sacks.

Coach of the Year : Bill Snyder - Kansas State : Snyder has to be up for coach of the millennium   What he did his first go around at KState almost having them in the title game in 1998 and continuing success in the early 2000s.  Then to retire and comeback and have them 11-1 this year and a loss to Baylor away from playing Notre Dame for the title is amazing.

Big Ten Player of the Year - Braxton Miller - QB - Ohio State : Miller in year 1 under Urban Meyer has given the rest of the Big Ten a glimpse of what the Buckeyes will have the next few years, and it looks dangerous.  Miller accounted for 3200+ total yards for the Buckeyes and 28 touchdowns as the Buckeyes went 12-0 in their self imposed no post season year.

Big XII Player of the Year - Collin Klein - QB - Kansas State : How much would Klein and KState like to have the Baylor game back.  If they win in Waco they are playing in Miami for a title and Klein is the Heisman Winner.  Klein passed for 2490 yards, a 15-7 TD-INT ratio and added 890 on the ground with 22 scores. while leading the 'Cats to a Big XII title and Fiesta Bowl bid.

Previous Award Winners

Jimmy John's Big Ten Challenge

The last Big Ten Football game of 2012-13 has been played with Wisconsin coming up JUST short of a very good Stanford team.  No more Big Ten games means no more Jimmy John's Big Ten Challenge.  

For the 2nd straight year Chad has won the title and Matt and Kyle will come in tying for 2nd place.  

FINAL STANDINGS

Chad : 81-23

Matt : 78-26

Kyle : 78-26

In 2013 we will institute a points feature.  See you in 239 days!

NFL Post Season Picks

So in my preseason predictions I picked Baltimore over Green Bay, now that can still happen, BUT I don’t see it happen. Though if it does I’m totally claiming that I did.  I also nailed 7 of the 12 playoff teams.  Not too shabby.  But going into the playoffs I’m making some other picks.  Here’s my post season NFL picks.



Jimmy John Big Ten Challenge Bowl Picks

7 games left, Chad 2 games up on both Kyle and I. A lot of things could happen with all 3 of us still having a chance to win, and lose. So for one final week, here we go with the our Big Ten Picks.

CHAD: 75-22          |          MATT: 73-24          |          KYLE: 73-24

Sports Moment of the Year

The Cubs 2012 Season was one to forget (as will 2013 most likely be) but in the sports world the Cubs turned in My Sports Moment of the Year.

Kerry Wood is a top 5 favorite Cub of mine. He’s had some bad breaks in his career and 2003 should have ended in the World Series. He had the 20 K game in his 5th start that was a thing of magic. The only way Hollywood wrote a better ending was if it was in the World Series, but Kid K ends his career on a strike out vs the cross town rivals, a standing ovation and a hug from his little boy at the top of the dugout.

Try and top that.