Another year - year 13 in our annuls - has passed, a new champion (Blowsticks) has been crowned, and the cool ones look forward to the most wonderful time of the year - draft weekend. In the meantime, we look back at 2008 with our Year End Awards.

Most Valuable Player
This may be the toughest year to award most valuable. The answer is certainly less obvious than in past years, when obvious choices like LaDanian Tomlinson and Tom Brady existed. You look at the total points lists: Philip Rivers lead the QB position with 130, but 7 QBs had over 100 points. RB? DeAngelo Williams lead with 122 points, but for a team (Goombas) that didn't make the playoffs, and most of his points came in bunches. In fact the top 3 RBs did not play for playoff teams. No WR or TE stood out like Moss or Gates have in past years. We will never award MVP to a kicker and DST is highly unlikely too. In this vein, the award will go to Brandon Jacobs, RB, Blowsticks, who was the most productive and consistent back for the champs (when healthy). He wound up tied for 3rd in total RB points and was the MVP of the championship game with 3 TDs.

Least Valuable Player
It would be too easy to give this to Tom Brady, who was useless after going down to year-ending knee surgery 1 quarter into this season. So we try to focus on high draft picks who were healthy most or all of the year but did not live up to expectations. Therefore, we'll give the 2008 "award" to 2 players: Joseph Addai and Steven Jackson, the 7th and 9th overall picks, who contributed all of 6 TDs apiece as the featured backs in their respective offenses. Honorable mentions: #13 pick Braylon Edwards, WR, CLE, 22 points; #16 pick T.J. Houshmandzadeh, WR, CIN, 24 points. WRs get more leeway than feature backs.

Team the Fates Were Cruelest Towards
Easy one this year - Fish Clubbers become a multiple winner of this award, tying for the league lead in total points but failing to make the playoffs by a single game. His was the team no one wanted to face late in the year, but couldn't find the moxie to pull out one more win and get into the mix. Owner Glen Fisher gets his high game and high season points bonus monies to help assuage his consternation.

Luckiest Team
Another easy one - Buzzard's Boozers were outscored by 8 of the 12 teams, but still managed to sneak into the playoffs as the #6 seed, then watched #1 seed Vandalay Industries lay an egg against him to get him into the money, i.e. the championship game. This coming from an owner who was downright vehement in blasting his draft picks and the poor quality of his team in Vegas. I guess there is an advantage to playing the Hoodlums twice a year.

Best Late Round Draft Pick
Not a lot of good choices here when surveying the list. Despite playing as part of a tandem, #146 pick Chris Johnson (RB, TEN) managed 10 TDs for the Goombas and looks to be a solid #2 fantasy back for several years to come, so we'll go with him. Runner-up: Afterthought DST pick the Packers at #145 scored 9 TDs and won several early season games for the Snatch under the new JIT defense/special teams rules.

Best Transaction
A few choices here; we'll call it the pickup of Antonio Bryant, WR, TB for Patrick Crayton, WR, DAL, by the Boozers. There were other choices, but the fact that Bryant single-handedly put the Boozers in the playoffs gives him the nod. Runner-up: hard to believe, but the Hoodlums made a smart move by dropping Derek Anderson early for Matt Ryan. Of note: Before we get too excited about the Hoodlums, keep in mind they made their annual head-scratching trade by giving (appropriate word) the Krazies Anquan Boldin for Julius Jones.

All JIT Team
QB: Philip Rivers, SD (Snatch) - 130 points
RB: DeAngelo Williams, CAR (Goombas) - 122 points
RB: Michael Turner, ATL (Clubbers) - 96 points
WR: Anquan Boldin, ARI (Krazies) - 66 points
WR: Randy Moss, NE (Clubbers) - 66 points
TE: Tony Gonzalez, KC (Goombas) - 54 points
K: Stephen Gostkowski, NE (Hellraisers) - 141 points
DST: Packers, GB (Snatch) - 54 points

All "0 Points For the Season" Team
QB: Tom Brady, NE (Goombas)
RB: Laurance Maroney, NE (Hoodlums)
RB: Rashard Mendenhall, PIT (Boozers)
WR: Bobby Engram, SEA (FA)
WR: Andre Davis, HOU (FA)
TE: Jeremy Shockey, NO (Yeah Dudes)
K: Jeff Wilkins, FA (FA) (did he die?)
DST: Redskins, WAS (FA)