Since this is my final blog I wanted to predict the biggest sporting spectacle in the world, the super bowl. The game hosts two great and deserving teams, the Patriots and the Giants. In the last set of predictions I made I was fortunate enough find an NFL.com expert's predictions and compare mine to him. But since the super bowl is in 10 days and not this upcoming weekend, there are no expert predictions on NFL.com, which means that I will have nothing to compare my predictions to. Nevertheless, I now will analyze and predict the super bowl.

The Giants are a team that has a good offense. But there main focus is on the defensive side of the ball. The Giants have the most feared defensive line in the league, led by rookie Jason Pierre Paul. On the offensive side of the ball, the Giants have completely changed there offense since 2007. In 2007, the Giants were a run first, pass second team. Now they are a pass first, run second team. Also there quarterback Eli Manning has evolved into an elite quarterback.

The Patriots are a team with an electrifying offense and a terrible defense. Their defense ranked second to last in the league in total yards per game allowed and pass yards allowed per game. Which means the only reason that the Patriots have come this far is because of their terrific and explosive offense, which is led by quarterback Tom Brady. The Patriots offense was third in the league in points per game and second in the league in yards per game. That is why the Patriots are in the super bowl.

Finally, here is my prediction for super bowl 46:

Giants-31
Patriots-28

Since this is my second to last blog, I wanted to take the time to honor some of the top NFL players by predicting the NFL awards. Coach of the year is an interesting award. Some people may judge coaches on how they turned a losing team into a winning team. Other people might judge coaches on how far they can take their team into the playoffs. With that said, my coach of the year award goes to Jim Harbaugh of the San Francisco 49ers. What amazed me about Harbaugh was how in his first year as head coach of the 49ers, how he turned his team around. In 2010, the 49ers won 6 games and lost 10. In 2011, they won 13 and lost only 3. I give a coach lots of credit if they can orchestrate a 7 game turnaround. 

My second award is a very honorable award. It is comeback player of the year award. It can symbolize a player who followed an injury filled season to go on to be great the next year. It can also be a player who always found away to make a comeback and win. My comeback player of the year award goes to Eli Manning. After not making the playoffs and throwing 25 interceptions in a disappointing 2010 season, Eli led the giants to the playoffs and a berth in super bowl 46. Eli also had 6 comeback victories in 2011, an outstanding feat. 

And finally the most highly anticipated award in the NFL, the league MVP award. I believe quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees are nearly neck and neck in the race for the MVP award. Although Rodgers won more games, Brees broke the record for passing yards in a season. So that's why my MVP award goes to Drew Brees of the saints for his remarkable passing numbers. 

Quarterback Eli Manning of the New York Giants has always been considered worse than his older brother and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. But now that Eli has gotten the Giants to the super bowl again, I believe Eli has established himself as an elite quarterback. So is Eli now the better of the two Manning's? I personally don't think so yet. But if Eli beats the patriots in the super bowl on February 5th, then I think he will be the better Manning. This being because although Peyton has much better stats, Eli has had much more success in the playoffs. In the playoffs, Peyton has won 9 games and lost 10 in the postseason while Eli has 7 wins and only 3 losses.

Another factor that will help come to the conclusion of whose the better Manning is Peyton Manning's future with the Colts. Peyton didn't play the whole 2011 season due to a neck injury. And with the Colts receiving the number one pick in the NFL draft, Peyton Manning's future doesn't look complete with the Indianapolis Colts. As a Jets fan, I can only hope a great quarterback like Peyton Manning will get traded to the Jets.

The Super sequel

It's déjà vu as the dynastic Patriots and red-hot Giants meet for the NFL title and a place in history.

Although the jets are not in the super bowl, I can't wait to see the patriots and giants square off for the championship in Indianapolis. But I want to talk about why in the world the patriots are favored by 3.5 points. The giants have proved twice that they can beat the nearly unbeatable patriots. The giants have showed that they can shut down the most powerful offense in the league. And most importantly, the giants have showed that they can defeat the patriots in a super bowl.

Also, I feel like the patriots lucked out against the ravens to advance to the super bowl. If the ravens kicker can nail a 32 yard field goal, then who knows what happens in overtime. The ravens outplayed the patriots in every way possible. But the ravens just were very unlucky. In my opinion, I think the giants should be favored by 3.5 points, not the patriots.

The New England Patriots just beat the Baltimore Ravens to earn a super bowl berth. The score was a nail bitter, 23 to 20, with the Patriots winning because the Ravens missed a field goal at the last second. The Ravens kicker flat out blew the Ravens season. Being a Patriot hater, I was very angry at the Baltimore Ravens kicker, Billy Cundiff. But as I think about it now, I kind of feel bad for Cundiff. The whole season came down to one kick, and he just chocked.

I also wonder how Cundiff's teammates reacted after the missed field goal. They could have either been supportive of Cundiff or pissed at Cundiff. If I were a teammate of Cundiff, I would have kept my frustration inside of me and tried to be as supportive as possible towards Cundiff. Hopefully there won't be any death threats from Ravens fans.

With not a lot of headline news in the NFL, for today's blog I decided to dive deep into the NFC and AFC championship games and make my predictions. As Michael Silver knows, the prediction I made last week was pretty bold to say the least. I predicted that the 9 win 7 loss giants would beat the 15 win 1 loss packers, 28 to 14. Although the score was a little off, the giants still romped the packers, 37 to 20. Below are NFL.com's Albert Breer's predictions.

 24  23

 24  20

I like Breer's predictions, but I believe the patriots-ravens game will not be as close of a score as Breer thinks. Here are my predictions.

Ravens-31, Patriots-17
This game was hard for me to pick, but I believe the Ravens defense will shut down the Patriots offense.

Giants-27, 49ers-21
I am very confident that this game will be close.

Today I wanted to talk about the lockout that almost ruined this NFL season. 176 days ago, the players and owners finally agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement to end the lockout, which lasted for over 100 days long. The players and owners couldn't figure out how to split 9 billion dollars evenly between them. This is one part of professional sports that I find disgusting. I mean, why does it even matter if players earn half a million dollars less then before? They are still multimillionaires. You would think that one would be satisfied with this salary.

Also, the players and owners needed to do something that did not happen. They needed to think about the NFL fans and how they feel. As a fan myself, I would wake up every day hoping with all my might that the players and owners agreed to a deal to end the madness. But soon enough, the news that the owners and players couldn't reach a deal would once again deflate my hopes and dreams. Now, although the jets were eliminated from the playoffs, I am still very much thankful for that one player or owner who realized what a selfish act this whole lockout was, and helped in the return to football for the 2011-2012 season.

With the NFC and AFC championships approaching, I can't wait to see how the games unfold. On the NFC side, the giants and 49ers are playing for a berth to Indianapolis for the super bowl. I believe these two teams are very similar in many ways. First of all, they both play great defense. As a player myself, I know how important having a good defense can be.

Another thing to add about these two games. They can both potentially set up an ideal super bowl match up. If the patriots and giants both win, they will meet to set up a rematch of one of the greatest super bowls ever, occurring in 2008. If the ravens and 49ers win, it will set up a rematch of week 12, when it became the first game ever where both head coaches were brothers and coached against each other in a game. I, personally want to see a rematch of with the patriots and giants because me, being a jets fan, want to see a sequel of the giants upsetting the patriots because the patriots are the jets rivals.

Tebow time has run out of time. That because the patriots demolished the broncos, 45-10. So something that I am wondering about is Tim Tebow’s future with the Denver broncos. You might be wondering, but Tim Tebow led his team to the playoffs, so why would people be wondering about his future? That is because the broncos built their whole team around Tim Tebow so he could succeed. I wonder if the broncos can put up with that for a whole other year. A recent poll on NFL.com asked, what does the future hold for Tim Tebow. 40% of all votes said that he will only be a starter on an up and down team. For a quarterback who just led his team to a playoff run, I find that answer pretty harsh.

Ocho rewards fan for tolerating years of Twitter silence

• By Marc Sessler NFL.com
• Published: Jan. 14, 2012 at 02:10 p.m.
• Updated: Jan. 15, 2012 at 02:35 p.m.
Liked: 0   |   Comments: 195

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Say what you want about Chad Ochocinco, but the man is an original. Sure, he's been close to invisible this season in New England's offense, but that's not how he'll be remembered, at least not by one young fan.

College student Victor Gonzalez, one of Ocho's 3 million-plus followers on Twitter, has spent the past two years trying to elicit a response from the receiver online. Mired in a one-sided relationship for the ages, Gonzalez hit his breaking point last Sunday,according to FOXSports.com.

"Been tweeting you for two years and have not ever gotten a response,"Gonzalez wrote.

And then it happened. Ocho wrote back.

"Damn 2 years? My bad. Want to come to the game saturday?"

It took the less-famous of the two very little time to respond and skillfully turn the table: "I would love to but i live in FLA. can you fly me out?"

Not a problem for Ochocinco, who promised to transport Gonzalez from his home in Fort White, Fla., up north in time for Saturday night's Patriots-Broncos divisional playoff game.

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"Bundle up young Jedi for it is cold here," Ocho tweeted Friday.

Gonzalez touched down safely in New England. Now they have entered into that blissful first stage of new friendship, where all the world is a carnival, with Ochocinco taking Gonzalez to Red Robin for dinner Friday, followed by a trip to pick up endless amounts of Patriots gear Saturday, before the kickoff at Gillette Stadium. The lone blemish: Ochocinco saw the field for only one play in the Patriots' 45-10 victory,according to ESPNBoston.com.

The lesson here: If you're in a one-sided relationship, especially with a celebrity who tends to ignore your advances, keep pushing.

A very interesting story came up over the weekend. Patriots wide receiver, Chad Ochocinco, is flying a fan out to see the Denver-New England game in Boston. So why exactly is Ochocinco doing this good deed. This following a tweet sent by the fan complaining about Ochocinco not getting back to him on twitter. So Ochocinco felt bad and flew this lucky fan to New England to see the Patriots game. I find this story to be very good for the NFL because some NFL players are jerks and would never do something like this for an average fan. But I believe Ochocinco brought the good out sports by doing something very simple to make a fans dream come true.

After the saints lost to the 49ers on Saturday’s divisional playoff game, I realized that a great defense can shut down a great offense any day of the week. Most analysts picked the saints to beat the 49ers. They said that the saints offense would throw all over the 49ers defense. Even though all directions in this game pointed to the saints to win, the 49ers pulled off the stunning upset in dramatic fashion, scoring to win with 9 seconds left in the game.

            With the giants-packers game on Sunday, I believe the giants with their great defense will shut down the packers offense, and win the game. Because I believe that a great defense can shut down a great offense any day of the week.

Lots of jets fans would and like to believe that quarterback Mark Sanchez isn't the problem for the jets. Analysts would rather blame the jets woes on the offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer. The critics say that Schottenheimer's play calling doesn't give Sanchez the opportunity capitalize on his throws. I disagree 100% with those critics. I believe it doesn't matter what plays the coaches call. A good quarterback would still be able to play well, no matter what the play call. 

Last week, Brian Schottenheimer and the jets parted ways. So who did the jets hire to fix their offense? They hired dolphins ex-coach, Tony Sparano, to call successful plays. Only one problem. The dolphins offense was not the best. They averaged 20.6 points per game, which ranked 20th in the league. They ranked 22nd in yards per game and 23rd in pass yards per game. So, as you can see, Tony Sparano does not look like the answer for the new york jets. Even the most famous jet ever, Joe Namath said, he doesn't get why the jets hired Tony Sparano as the offensive coordinator. 

UCLA hires Sal Alosi as assistant

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ESPN.com news services

LOS ANGELES -- Sal Alosi, the former New York Jets assistant coach who resigned last year after tripping an opposing player on the sideline, has been hired by UCLA as its strength and conditioning coordinator.

After leaving the Jets, Alosi worked as a personal trainer out of his home in New Jersey before being hired by Bryant College in Rhode Island. He appreciated the opportunity afforded by Bryant, but considered it a steppingstone to a bigger job. He was on UCLA coach Jim Mora's staff with the Falcons in 2006.

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William Perlman/The Star-Ledger/US PresswireSal Alosi famously resigned from the Jets after intentionally tripping a Dolphins player on the sideline in a 2010 game at MetLife Stadium.

In December 2010, Alosi became a national story when he tripped Dolphins player Nolan Carroll while Carroll was running along the Jets' sideline. Alosi may have been able to survive that, but his time with the Jets essentially came to an end when the organization determined he had instructed inactive players to form a "wall" along the boundary to deter Miami players.

Initially, Alosi was suspended for the remainder of the season and fined $25,000, but the Jets suspended him indefinitely after determining he instructed players to stand in a wall formation.

The NFL came down hard on the Jets to the tune of a $100,000 fine. On Jan. 31, the team announced Alosi's resignation. Coach Rex Ryan, referring to the incident in his book, called it "a stupid mistake ... But I think he's a hell of a coach."

Efforts to reach Alosi were unsuccessful last April when he was training Jets players D'Brickashaw Ferguson and defensive end Mike DeVito during the NFL's lockout when players were barred from team facilities.

"I wanted to work with a coach that knows how to train NFL players," DeVito told ESPNNewYork.com in an April phone interview. "Every year that I've worked with Sal, I got that much better. I trust him and I buy into his program. I wanted to make sure I stayed on the same track. Sal is the best strength coach I've ever been around."

Alosi likely signed a confidentiality agreement upon his resignation, prohibiting him from commenting on anything pertaining to his time with the Jets. In April, a woman who answered the phone at his parents' home on Long Island told a reporter, "You have the wrong number" -- and hung up.

Up above is a video and report on former jets trainer and new UCLA assistant, Sal Alosi. After I saw the news that he had been hired by UCLA, I decided to make a post about him.
After the game when Alosi tripped a opposing Dolphin's player, he got fined 25,000. His stupidity also cost the jets 100,000 as an organization. What I don't understand about UCLA hiring Alosi is why can they just hire someone who doesn't trip opposing players? It's not like there're not any other good coaches looking for jobs. 

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d8259744a/No-helmet-no-problem

On the link above is a football play where a player, Bryan Braman, lost his helmet, then proceeded to tackle the opposing team's player head first.

Every analysis I've heard on this play has commented on this player's devotion and toughness. But I find it just plain stupid. First of all, Braman gave himself a high risk of sustaining a severe concussion. He would have been out cold if the opposing player's helmet happened to hit his head when tackled. Another problem I saw with this tackle is why the Braman would even bother to tackle him. The returner was heading out of bounds anyway. What if Braman did get seriously injured? Then every analysis would be talking about his stupidity and how he let down his team because of that stupidity. I am 100% confident that if I conducted a poll to NFL players, over 75% of them would agree that tackling without your helmet is not worth the risk of injury.