NFL MVP: Brees or LT?

The debate has been simmering for a couple weeks now, since Week 14 when LaDainian Tomlinson set the single-season touchdown record and Drew Brees orchestrated a thorough and ruthless demolition of the Dallas Cowboys in front of a national audience. The debate is fierce, and whichever of the two former Charger teammates wins (and this is only a two-horse race) will be well-deserving of NFL MVP. But who is more deserving?

The case for Tomlinson:
- He has always been an elite runner, but he has taken his game to an other-worldly level this year. After averaging 3.9 and 4.3 yds/carry in the last two seasons respectively, Tomlinson has bumped the figure up to a hefty 5.3 yds/carry this season. And of course the touchdowns - there was a reason he was in every fantasy draft's top 3 this year, but even the most knowing experts wouldn't have expected 31 touchdowns, a league record by 3, with a game still to play.

- Tomlinson has gotten better as the year has gone along. After starting the season well, he became downright dominant in November, when the Chargers took control of the AFC West after the struggles of the Broncos. His yards per carry average and touchdown tally spiked in that month, at 6.2 yds/carry and 12 TDs respectively.

- His imposing presence has helped to ease the burden on first-time starter at QB, Philip Rivers, who blossomed into a Pro Bowl selection. The loss of Brees to free agency didn't hurt as much as it might have because there remained a consistent source of offense in Tomlinson.

- LT will be productive anytime and anywhere. He is a model of high-level consistency, the likes of which the NFL has rarely seen. He can get his yards anywhere, behind the left side, right side, or middle of the offensive line, making it difficult for defenses to overplay to any one area. (Not to mention his superior receiving skills for which you have to account.) He gets his touchdowns in equal doses at home and on the road, with a remarkable 14 rushing TDs apiece. And most importantly, you know he's going to get the ball in the red zone and defenses still can't stop him. That is domination.

The case for Brees:
- The leadership qualities he brings to a team that was perhaps in more need of them than any other franchise after last season's Katrina-driven nightmare. Fellow players and coaches are unanimous in saying that he brought an identity and a confidence that were sorely lacking before he arrived. The Saints would follow him anywhere, and that can't be underestimated in the team's rise this season.

- He played big in crucial games. In three wins that looking back, were integral to the Saints getting to this point, against Atlanta (the first Superdome game since Katrina), and Philadelphia and Dallas (wins that gave them the tiebreak advantage they parlayed into a first-round playoff bye) he has a combined 850 yds, 8 TDs, and 71% completion percentage.

- In a league in which a steady hand at quarterback has been hard to come by, Brees has been the rare exception - a free agent acquisition who has not only met, but exceeded expectations. Compared against a lot of uneven play at the quarterback position this year, his play has stood out even more than it would have already.

Who gets the vote?
Tomlinson is commonly referred to as the best player in the game today, but that's selling him short. This season he's also the most valuable. He is the surest thing there is the NFL, and his play has made a good Chargers team great in the regular season - a step up that is arguably harder to achieve that going from bad to good, as the Saints have done.

Brees has been terrific this year, but you can argue that coach Sean Payton has actually been the team's most valuable addition. When you factor in the addition of super-rookies Reggie Bush and Marques Colston, a healthy Deuce McAllister, and a true slate of home games, the Saints improved in a lot of areas from last season to this. The Chargers' main personnel upgrade has been the Pro Bowl-caliber play of OT Marcus McNeill, which is not to be diminished, but the franchise hasn't had the overall upheaval that the Saints have experienced. Tomlinson is the main difference in turning the Chargers into the Super Bowl favorite, and for that he deserves MVP.

MVPs Anonymous

In a bit of an upset, Justin Morneau, first baseman for the Twins, won the AL MVP today in a close vote over Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. Morneau, who hit .321 with 34 HR and 130 RBI is probably the most improbable, and for the moment, the most anonymous league MVP of this generation. A native of British Columbia, Canada, Morneau won the award in only his second full season as the Twins starting first baseman. What makes it all the more impressive is that his huge year came after a season in 2005 in which he fell well short of lofty expectations that were heaped upon him.

For Morneau to break through and win the award meant he had to overcome a lack of name recognition that comes his lack of experience and his status as member of a smaller market team in the Twins. And the players he finished above in the voting are about as big-name as they come: Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, and Frank Thomas. Usually in baseball, big names like that end up walking away with the award. The only leauge MVPs in the last 15 years that are comparable in terms of their surprise emergence are Ken Caminiti who won for the Padres in 1996, and Terry Pendleton for the Braves in 1991. But even those two players were more firmly established when they won the honors than Morneau is now.

Maybe the most comparable example to Morneau is Miguel Tejada, who won the AL MVP for Oakland in 2002. His numbers that year are eerily similar to those of Morneau this year - he also had 34 HR with 131 RBI. Both players were the top offensive threats on teams that were not star-studded but were full of good players. And the key thing is that both players played their best during remarkable winning stretches by their teams. You may remember that the A's won 20 games in a row in that 2002 season, and this year's Twins overcame a mediocore April and May to become the hottest team in baseball over the final four months of the season. Both teams won their division in tight races, and as a side note, both teams were upset in the first round of the playoffs - the A's in 2002 by Minnesota, and Minnesota by the A's in 2006 ironically enough.

If anything the MVP results in both leagues this year show that you need a torrid stretch in the back half of the season in addition to solid production throughout the year in order to win the award. This year's two second-place winners, Jeter in the AL and Albert Pujols in the NL, had great overall seasons, but did not have the signature late-season stretch that gave the MVPs to Morneau and Ryan Howard of the Phillies in the NL.