The Football Fan Spot

11. Outside Linebacker (4-3 only)

Not quite as much of a versatile defensive player as a middle linebacker, and you can get away without great outside linebackers as shown by the fact that neither the Saints nor the Colts have good outside linebackers this year. Their main job is cleaning up the messes of the defensive line and chasing down running backs out of the backfield. They can also be blitzed.

Best in the league: Daryl Smith, Brian Cushing, Lance Briggs

12. Tight End

They may be more important to rookie quarterbacks than veterans, but most quarterbacks enjoying having a good safety value tight end who can catch the ball over the middle. Their job description includes both catching the ball like a receiver and blocking like a lineman, but because of their hybrid type status, they aren’t extremely important.

Best in the league: Jason Witten, Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez

13. Center

The most underrated position on the field, there’s a reason that Peyton Manning does so well, he has had the same center snapping him the ball for his entire career. That definitely helps. They are also the smartest offensive linemen in terms of football knowledge, oh, and they also have to do some blocking. Just look at what happened to the Eagles after Jamaal Jackson got hurt for the first time in many seasons, Donovan McNabb looked uncomfortable and the entire offensive line fell apart.

Best in the league: Jamaal Jackson, Jeff Saturday, Nick Mangold

14. Safety

They aren’t necessary to a good team, but they certainly help. The Steelers have given up 10 more points per game over the last 2 years in games in which safety Troy Polamalu missed than in games he played in.

Best in the league: Troy Polamalu, Ed Reed, Nick Collins

15. Kick Returner

Nothing energizes a team more than a kick return touchdown, and they also give you good field position, the only issues, the difference between good ones and bad ones in terms of yards per return is minimal and even a good one will only score like once or twice a year. Their career length also isn’t very long.

Best in the league: Joshua Cribbs, Clifton Smith, Johnny Knox

16. Punt Returner

Basically the same as a kick returner, but because of the situation, they often get a much smaller chunk of yards per return. 10 yards is good. Their career doesn’t last long either.

Best in the league: DeSean Jackson, Joshua Cribbs, Quan Cosby

17. Full Back

Not all offenses even use one, but having a big fullback that can run and catch the ball, in addition to block, adds an extra little element to your offense.

Best in the league: Leonard Weaver, Le’Ron McClain, Ovie Mughelli

18. Punter

A good punter can make a good defense even better by setting them up with good field position, the only issue, they are only used when struggling so if you’re a good team, they aren’t extremely necessary.

Best in the league: Shane Lechler, Andy Lee, Ben Graham

19. Kicker

They can kill you or not kill you, the issue, one who doesn’t kill you one game, can kill you the next. They are extremely inconsistent.

Best in the league: Matt Prater, Sebastian Janikowski, Stephen Gostkowski

20. Special Teams

There’s a reason all the special teamers are the backups of other position that you can risk getting hurt. Much love for the position, it takes a lot to suck up your pride and play special teams, but they aren’t super important. You can only really tell when they are bad and miss a tackle. The holder and the long snapper are a little bit more important, but not much.

Best in the league: Tim Shaw, HB Blades, John Wendling

Every year, the four major professional sports leagues give out Most Valuable Player awards for the player that a selected group of voters decides means the most to his respective team. This year, Peyton Manning won it in the NFL, LeBron James in the NBA, Dustin Pedroia and Albert Pujols in the MLB (AL and NL respectively), and Alex Ovechkin in the NHL. However, there is no MVP for American sports in general. Until now. The eight candidates are Pedroia, Pujols, Manning, Ovechkin, James, along with Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, and Ryan Howard, all three of whom have won MVPs in recent years, just not last year.. I’m going to make this interactive and have readers submit their votes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, but I will also cast my votes.

3rd place: Albert Pujols

The man is a machine. He plays every game of every season pretty much, even when hurt. He does everything on the baseball field, hit, run, play defense, hit for average, draw walks. He also makes everyone better and he’s the stabilizing part in the Cardinals success over the past decade. He also has a knack for hitting in the clutch. He’s like that Tim Duncan kind of guy, a bit boring and small market, but he produces, wins, and makes everyone better.

2nd place: Tom Brady

He didn’t win an MVP this year because he was hurt, but I’d still rather have him over any other NFL player. He simply wins. He wins with bad receivers, mediocre receivers, excellent receivers. The Patriots have the best record of any American professional sports team since Brady’s arrival in 2002, and this is even if you include the season he was hurt and the team went a mere 11-5. In the playoffs, its like he goes to another level. He is in the playoffs every year it seems, but he only has 3 losses, as opposed to 14 wins.

1st place: LeBron James

He is the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yes, they had help from Maurice Williams this year, but he is only Mo Williams. Plus, I bet the fact that Mo was playing with LeBron was the biggest reason why he was a first time all-star. LeBron pretty much single handedly carried the team to 66 wins this season, whether it was with scoring by himself, or making everyone else around him better.

Wrap up: Several things all valuable players have in common, they produce in the clutch, they win, and they make everyone else better.

Don’t forget to vote

Agree? Disagree? Tell me.

Mister_S