It’s Christmas season and I must admit, the cheeriness of the season is mighty infectious. I was just over at my boy Corey Koehler’s website, Music Goat, listening to some quality off-beat Christmas music and felt inspired to write a post dedicated to the top 16 things I’m thankful for this holiday season. Why 16? Partly because it’s a pretty arbitrary number, and I do love arbitrary numbers, and partly because it’s December 16th.

Without further ado, here are the top 16 things I’m thankful for this holiday season. Feel free to add your own in the comments!

16. Sports Data Hub - It’s made analyzing statistics super easy, thus freeing up more time in my day to visit YouTube, Facebook, and check my Gmail even more often than is necessary. I’m already looking forward to the offseason so I can take full advantage of it for my preseason analysis!

15. NFL Network - Do other pro sports have their own channel? Probably. I guess I really don’t know because, if they do, they just don’t compare with NFL Network. With games during the season and 24/7 football reporting year round, this is the channel for any football fan to watch.

14. Seinfeld - It’s that time of year for stations to begin airing the Festivus episode, one of my all-time favorites. This show is truly standing the test of time and because so many stations carry it, Jerry Seinfeld remains (when I last checked, a couple months ago) the second highest paid actor in the television business, thanks to royalties.

13. Kenny Mayne - Maybe it takes a certain sense of humor to really appreciate SportsCenter’s funniest anchor, but check out some of his clips on ESPN.com and tell me he isn’t the funniest guy in sports. Go ahead, try to convince me.

12. Sports Blogs - I blog. I read blogs. You may do both, too. Either way, blogging has opened the doors for thousands of fans to get their opinions published. It’s great for sports and it’s awesome for anyone with a fantasy football team.

11. Snow - Football in the snow is great. It might be frigid cold in the stands when it’s blizzardous and it might make tailgating hazardous, but there’s something special about a football game played in the snow. The Ice Bowl? Greatest. Game. Ever.

10. Christmas Songs - Nothing gets me in the mood for Christmas like some quality holiday tunes. It puts me in the spirit, as I chug one more glass of eggnog the only time of year it’s acceptable to do so.

9. Madden NFL Football Games - It’s always fun to play a competitive game of Madden football, and it’s great for re-inforcing some player names in my head. Online play is great, but there’s something inexplicably satisfying about doing a victory dance in front of your last opponent.

8. ESPN - The worldwide leader, baby. SportsCenter, Mike and Mike, Kenny Mayne (see number 13), ESPN.com, ESPN 8: The Ocho - plain and simple, ESPN rules. The best personalities in sports tend to gravitate toward the best network, and where would we all be if Mel Kiper didn’t offer his wisdom year in and out on ESPN’s NFL Draft show?

7. YouTube - Whether you need to kill 15 minutes or 3 hours, YouTube is the place to do it. Go watch a baby laugh, see Frank Caliendo do Jim Rome, or watch an “outtake” (see spoof) of The Dark Night. It’s just so darn entertaining!

6. Yahoo.com - In my opinion, Yahoo Fantasy Sports is still the best place to host a fantasy sports league. It’s free, simple, everyone has a Yahoo account, and it’s free.

5. Monster energy drinks - I’m gonna be honest with you: I wouldn’t even be able to function without several solid daily doses of caffeine, and Monster is my favorite way to get it, though Starbucks Doubleshots come in at a very close second.

4. The National Football League - The NFL is hot right now, and for good reason. It’s the best sport to watch on television with a group of friends, especially if they’re in your fantasy football league, and it’s immensely rewarding to go see a live game or tailgate in the parking lot when one is going on. It’s just so … indescribably perfect.

3. Fantasy Football - I just can’t get enough of fantasy football. I love to play it, I love to talk about it, I love to write about it. I’m so glad my brothers got me started several (like years ago. I owe them one for that!

2. Christmas - How could I go an entire list without mentioning my favorite holiday? It’s a day of giving (and receiving!), family, love, and all those other gushy things I typically don’t get the opportunity to write about. It’s the one season each year everyone gets a warm and fuzzy feeling inside and can get away with drinking eggnog (it bore repeating). Plus, we all get the chance to string 1000s of Christmas lights everywhere while everyone with a “green” agenda can just sit and stare. I love Christmas!

1. Family and Friends - This is the season of friends and family, of love and giving. No matter where we live or what our differences, we can always find a way to get together and have a happy holidays with those in our lives we care most about.

Thank you for reading and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!!!

I love quirky NFL statistics. Geeky, I know, but it’s satisfying to find numbers that not enough fans or mediums are talking about because, well, they just don’t know them yet. Perusing the web for a while, I came across the following nuggets that any fan can appreciate. Some shine a new light on a certain players and others mean absolutely nothing. In any event, I hope you enjoy reading this batch as much I did researching them.

1. Among running backs with at least 40 carries, do you know who is leading the NFL in rush attempts per rushing touchdown? Not LenDale White, who scores once every 10.7 carries. The answer is T.J. Duckett, who has scored 6 touchdowns on 45 carries, or once every 7.5 carries. No one else in the NFL with as many attempts scores at least once per 10 or fewer carries.

2. It’s no wonder Drew Brees has so many passing yards this season. (He’s on pace for just under 5,200.) He’s completed 15 passes this season for at least 40 yards, leading the NFL by quite a margin (closest quarterback has 10). Talk about a big play offense! But that doesn’t mean the Saints’ passing game is the only worth mentioning. When Tony Romo is commanding the Cowboys offense, his passes account for at least 40 yards once every 26.6 attempts; Brees can claim one every 28.3 attempts.

3. Among quarterbacks with at least 10 touchdown passes (there are 22), only one has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns: Minnesota’s Gus Frerotte, who has thrown 11 TDs and 12 INTs. Among quarterbacks with fewer than 10 touchdown passes (there are 10), 4 have thrown more interceptions than touchdowns.

4. Not in the last decade (1999) and just four times in the last forty years has a Bears quarterback started more than half the team’s games and finished the season with a passer rating of at least 80.0. Kyle Orton, who has started 10 games for Chicago this season, has a rating of 88.1.

5. In 1992, Brett Favre’s first season with the Green Bay Packers, Number Four passed for 3,227 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. Through 11 games this season, Rodgers has 2,599 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions, pacing himself to pass for nearly 500 more yards, at least 6 more touchdowns, and the same number of interceptions.

6. Last season we all praised David Garrard for being very careful with the football and throwing very few interceptions per pass attempt (one interception per 108 attempts). This season, however, he’s had trouble throwing touchdowns - he’s averaging one touchdown per 40 attempts. And interceptions? He’s averaging one of those for every 45 passes.

7. Brett Favre is 4th in the NFL in passing touchdowns this season, with 20. But that’s not the only familiar list of which he is near the top. He’s also leading the NFL with 13 interceptions thrown this season. Favre has thrown for 20 or more interceptions five times in his career, including a record-setting 29 in 2005.

8. Now this is interesting: Jay Cutler is fourth in the NFL in pass attempts with 404 this season, yet he’s been sacked just 7 times this season, fewer than all but Kerry Collins, who has 310 pass attempts this season. In other words, Cutler has been sacked just once every 58.7 times he stepped back to pass.

9. Randy Moss set an NFL record last season by catching 23 touchdown passes. Needless to say, he led the league in said category. This season, though in the midst of an enormous dropoff, he has 8 touchdown receptions. That’s enough to tie him for second, behind only Anquan Boldin, who has 11.

10. Devery Henderson has 23 receptions this season, which, on the surface, doesn’t seem overly impressive. What is impressive, however, is that 5 of those receptions moved the ball at least 40 yards and 3 were touchdowns. The two players who lead the NFL in receptions of at least 40 yards have six - and they have at least 25 more receptions. It’s also worth noting that teammate Robert Meachem has also played a role in the big-play passing game in New Orleans. 3 of his 8 receptions this season went at least 40 yards and he has 2 touchdowns.

You love the NFL; why else would you be on this site, researching and reaping the benefits of fantasy football? But let’s be honest: there are only so many hours in the day. If you’re a student, that means homework, reading, midterms, and eventually (no!) finals. If you’re in a 9-5, that means hours spent answering emails, doing paperwork, and pleasing the boss with hard (or at least effective) work. And if you’re married and have kids, that means even more time spent away from what really matters: fantasy football.

The point is, however, you probably don’t have as much time to spend researching fantasy football and tweaking your roster as, say, a writer or journalist who has been fortunate enough to land a gig analyzing his favorite pastime.That’s why this post is so important: it highlights the websites that will give you the biggest bang for your time buck. Time management is important no matter what you’re doing; figuring out fantasy football is no different.

Here are the top ten sites - offering everything from tools that allow you to do your own analysis to providing their analyses to breaking down the day’s news - you ought to know. Bookmark them, subscribe to them, keep an eye on them; you’ll be a better fantasy football player for doing so.

1. This site, of course- Sports Data Hub makes it easier than ever to look at how players are performing on a weekly basis and that makes pitting players head-to-head for trades easier because, chances are, you won’t get enough information from any other site. The best part: the basic tool (which is for the players themselves) is free. If you want to dig deeper, don’t hesitate to pay for the modestly priced premium features of the site for even more data. My favorite tool: trendlines.

2. Pro Football Reference - There isn’t a better statistical database on the planet during the offseason. The site has super-fast load times and an easy-to-access layout, which means you’ll get more done in less time. Plus, when you’re bored it’s always fun to check out some of the site’s frivolities, such as which player was born today and the non-quarterback passers, which lists all the “other guys” since 1960 to have thrown a pass in a game.

3. Football Outsiders - Simply put, these guys know football. They’ve developed their own statistics for breaking down which offenses are most effective when they have the football and which defenses are best at stopping those offenses. Their articles are spot-on and their analysis is, well, brilliant. For example, they developed something called the third down prinicple which basically points out that “teams whose third down performance on offense or defense exceeds their performance on first and second down tend to see that third down performance decline in subsequent years.” Check out the site and be prepared to read a lot of numbers (though in an easily digestible format).

4. Fantasy Players Network - You probably don’t have time to check 25 different blogs every day, but that’s okay, because this site has brought together 25 of the best fantasy football blogs on the net and put them on one site. It updates frequently and links to those other sites so you can check the headlines you want (including both news and analysis) without subscribing to dozens of blogs and sites.

5. Pro Sports Daily - I recommend checking this site in the morning when it’s updated with headlines form loads of newspapers from around the country. They also have team-specific pages and the site has developed into a more communal format, with more emphasis on comments. The coolest part: seeing 10-20 headlines, plus snippets (a paragraph or so) that give you a pretty good idea of the article’s content.

6. AccuScore - Now here’s a great concept: weekly forecasts for individual players and teams (such as postseason odds) at the click of the mouse. The articles also do a great job of telling you what the numbers mean,without requiring you to go back to school for a math degree. And if you’re the gambling type, the site offers analytical tools for over/under, a parlay calculator, and the daily line report.

7. Rotoworld - It’s easy during the offseason to wind up unsure of who is starting where and how position battles are coming along. And that’s just one great reason to bookmark this site. The depth chart page is something that once you see it, you wonder how you got along without it. It updates more frequently than any other site I know about and makes it very easy to check up on the latest news and injury reports for specific players.

8. Fantasy Football Librarian - Fantastic links await you on this updated-on-a-pretty-much-every-day-basis blog. It makes sense, doesn’t it? A librarian doing research … only this librarian has an affinity for fantasy football. What could be better?

9. The Official Website of the National Football League - NFL.com is a great place to follow games when you can’t catch them on television and the video recaps give you a pretty good idea of what happened during the game in under five minutes. Also, be sure to check out anything written by Adam Schefter or any video that he’s involved in: he’s the Chris Mortenson of NFL Network and his rumors and analysis are usually dead-on.

10. Pro Football Talk - This site continues to be known for its rumor mill, but the site also features A LOT of news. It’s updated several times each hour with analytical posts that put most other news-rumor-analysis sites to shame. It can be overwhelming at times to see so many posts, but it’s worth reading the homepage’s headlines every so often during the day to catch some juicy NFL gossip.

I know it’s early in the season and all, but I just thought it would be fun to pick between the two best and brightest young running backs in the NFL: Adrian Peterson or Darren McFadden. A friend asked me this question the other day, and the more I thought about it, the clearer it became. I’d want McFadden.

I remember college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit at the draft saying that the people impressed by Peterson last season will be blown away by McFadden, and the latter running back is beginning to make a believer out of me. He combines speed, power, and versatility in such a rare way he makes watching Raiders games fun. Really!

Now, the Raiders may be in the NFL’s basement right now, and after the firing of head coach Lane Kiffin, I see little reason to believe they’ll get back out. But Darren McFadden this season has been spectacular when he touches the football. He averages 5.3 yards per carry and has 272 yards through the first four games of the season, even though he handles less than half the workload. In fact, he’s handled more than 10 carries in a game only twice this season and at least 15 only once.

But let’s forget about the numbers for a moment. McFadden has plenty of time to wow NFL fans with those. What I love about McFadden is his versatility. And what I mean by that is, he has the ability to catch passes out of the backfield. That’s not something the Raiders have taken advantage of yet, but it’s definitely something to watch. And it’s also something Adrian Peterson just isn’t very good at. Peterson, who had 268 receiving yards last season, made some big plays when he caught the football (especially in the first three weeks of the season, when three receptions accounted for 99 of his season’s yards) but, at the same time, he just wasn’t utilized as a receiver. He’s not a route-runner and he doesn’t have great hands; he’s more of a screen back. This season he has nine catches (about half as many as last season) and is averaging a little under 6 yards per reception.

Peterson also struggles at blocking. He’s working at both these weaknesses, but, for now at least, he’s more of a pure running back. And as for his yards last season, nearly 30 percent of those came in 2 huge games. Take those games away, and he was relatively pedestrian the rest of the season, with 178 carries for 821 yards. And in the second half of the season his numbers were very poor, as he rushed for more than 100 yards just once after week nine and finished with 65 carries for 189 rushing yards (less than 3.0 yards per carry) in five of his final six starts because of injuries, another big reason I would rather have McFadden if I was starting a franchise.

Time will tell how consistent and durable McFadden is. He too started out hot this season but has cooled down considerably in the last two weeks. In fact, discounting his huge 164 yard performance, his numbers don’t look especially impressive. But having said that, I think that if the Raiders get him the touches he deserves - 15-20 per game, at least - he’s capable of a Peterson-like season. Plus, I think he should be more involved in the passing game. Scout.com said he was the best running back to come out of college in the past 20 years and that’s saying something. Right now he might be the best pure athlete in the NFL, and he combines explosiveness with power in a way that makes him almost incomparable.

So if I was an NFL owner starting a new franchise I would take McFadden over Peterson. Both are extraordinary athletes in a league full of them, but, to me, McFadden is the better all-around player and one of those rare talents that comes around every so many years. You just have to give him a shot.

The NFL season is now 11.76 percent complete and the Favre-Rodgers comparisons are already well underway and in mid-season form. But there are things we’ve learned that don’t concern those two. Enjoy this batch of almost a dozen stats that you probably haven’t heard yet:

Guess who has the NFL’s most prolific passing game at this point in the NFL season. If you said, “Denver Broncos” you nailed it. The Broncos, who are well regarded for their running game most seasons, are averaging 320.5 passing yards per game (2nd in NFL, behind Philadelphia) and have thrown 6 passing touchdowns (T-1st with San Diego).

But do you know who has thrown the ball most this season? Peyton Manning. He’s tossed the ball up 91 times this season is on pace for 748 pass attempts. Interestingly, Denver’s Jay Cutler has just 4 fewer completions than Manning with 27 fewer attempts.

Everyone knows that Manning has struggled this season, but at least he’s put up decent numbers. These quarterbacks haven’t: David Garrard (3 interceptions-1 touchdown), Derek Anderson (51.8 completion percentage), Matt Hasselbeck (45.5 completion percentage), and Carson Palmer (37.1 quarterback rating). Those quarterbacks also rank 25, 29, 31, and 32 in quarterback rating this season. Yup, Tarvaris Jackson, who has found his way to the bench this week, has a quarterback rating better than three of them and his rating (a 64.8) is only eight-tenths of a point worse than Garrard.

Talk about some young gunslingers. Four of the top five quarterback ratings go to quarterbacks aged 26 and under: Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Jay Cutler, and Aaron Rodgers. Look a little further down the line and seven of the top ten are 28 and under (Tony Romo, Trent Edwards, and Matt Cassel).

Meanwhile, the four quarterbacks with the most interceptions this season - Jon Kitna, Drew Brees, David Garrard, and Matt Hasselbeck - are 30 or older. Hasselbeck and Garrard have thrown just 1 touchdown this season, too.

The NFL’s top three rushing offenses are collectively 2-3 this season: Baltimore (1-0), Oakland (0-2), and Atlanta (1-1). These three are also the only three running games to be averaging over 200 yards per game on the ground, but, to be fair, the Raiders have already fumbled the ball 5 times this season.

Three of the NFL’s top five leading rushers are starting for the first time this season. Michael Turner ranks 2nd and is averaging 7.3 yards per carry, while the other two on this list - Darren McFadden and Matt Forte - are both rookies.

Brandon Marshall missed the first game of the season with a suspension. He also leads the NFL in receptions with 18. I guess it helps to have a career game every now and then.

The NFL’s receiver with the most yards this season is Greg Jennings.He also leads the NFL in “big catches” with three that have covered 40+ yards. Interestingly, he’s averaging 23.5 yards per catch but still hasn’t found the endzone this season.

When Peyton Manning and Kurt Warner need a first down, who do you think they look for? Reggie Wayne and Larry Fitzgerald? Nope. Anthony Gonzalez and Anquan Boldin have caught 11 passes for first downs. They each have just 14 catches this season. Buffalo’s Lee Evans, meanwhile, has been a perfect 8-for-8.

Looks like Sebastian Janikowski still has one of the NFL’s strongest legs. He’s already kicked 6 touchbacks (on 9 kickoffs), which means he, by far and away, has the highest percentage with 66.7 that have required a knee (the next highest is 50 percent). He’s also kicked the longest field goal this season: a 56 yarder that split the uprights.