Fernando Gallo

Derek Anderson

I have a big problem with MVP awards, because in the three major sports (football, basketball and baseball) the voters hardly ever get it right.

MVP stands for Most Valuable Player, but it’s usually the best all-around player that gets the award. So the name needs to be changed or the voters need to stop choosing the honorees based on star-power or gaudy statistics. If a player is the most valuable guy in the entire league, then he should be someone who the team could not possibly succeed without.

So even though arguments can be made for many other people, I believe the most valuable player in the NFL thus far isn’t somebody named Brady or Manning; It’s Cleveland Browns quarterback Derek Anderson.

Now before anyone gets upset and denounces my choice as the irrelevant musing of an idiot, allow me to state Anderson’s case. Most of the other deserving candidates, like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, play for good teams. Anderson has to play for the long-suffering Browns, who have compiled a 45-91 record since 1999.

Cleveland was 0-1 this year before starting quarterback Charlie Frye was benched in favor of Anderson. The 2005 sixth-round pick was supposed to simply keep the seat warm for this year’s 22nd overall pick, Brady Quinn, but Anderson has played at a Pro Bowl level.

Since taking over as the full-time starter in Week 2, Anderson put up better numbers than 2007 Pro Bowlers Carson Palmer and Drew Brees: a quarterback rating of 94.9 with 18 total touchdowns to only eight interceptions. Overall this season, he ranks in the top 10 in quarterback rating, passing yards, passing yards per game and passing touchdowns.

Aside from putting up great numbers, Anderson has also led the same team that went 4-12 last year to a 5-3 record this year heading into week 10. The Browns find themselves over .500 this late into a season for the first time since 2002 and in the thick of the playoff hunt in the AFC. If that’s not one hell of a valuable player, I don’t know who is.

Victor Nieto

Randy Moss

OK, let’s cut the drama and state that the most palpable candidate for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player thus far through week 10 resides in the New England, in the city known as Boston. I tried tirelessly to find a player on a different team who could be rationalized as another possible midseason candidate but there’s just no one who fits the qualification.

Not only is he on pace to break the touchdown record, but he is helping his team reach the elusive goal of a perfect 16-0 season. And did I mention he’s a wide receiver?

That’s right, Randy Moss. You know that guy who was Oakland’s forgotten malcontent of a year ago, the Vikings disenfranchised “franchise” player of 2002, and above all known to most of the world going into the 2007 season as a washed up has-been whose value dropped to a pathetic 4th-round trade.

Yeah that guy, well he’s good again.

With the acquisition of Randy Moss, the Patriots have run off a franchise setting nine-consecutive victories with a margin of victory of 21 points per contest. Moss in a career year with the Vikings in ’98 and ’03 scored 17 touchdowns and already in nine games this season he has a league leading 12 touchdowns and 924 yards receiving.

Yes, it’s easy to say that fellow teammate Tom Brady is the more deserving of the two, but both are key fixtures to the Patriots’ perfect season and Super Bowl run, and without either one the team would lose a vital dimension to its game.

Last year the Pats were good but they wern’t this great juggernaut with potential historic aspirations as it does this year. And plus, Moss’ presence alone spreads the field so wide open for Tom Brady that even Forty-Niner quarterback Alex Smith would look impressive in that offense.

Moss draws double and sometimes triple teams, yet amazingly is still is able to out-leap or out-maneuver those defenders for jaw-dropping touchdowns. The man is in a league of his own and is sure to give Jerry Rice’s record setting 22-touchdown season a run for its money on his way to his first MVP award.

Alicia de la Garza

Brett Favre

With half the season played and over with, the Green Bay Packers have plenty of things to smile about.

First off, they have a 7-1 record thus far for the season.

Second, they currently have a three-game winning streak and they have won 11 out of the last 12 games.

But most importantly, the team has Brett Favre as its quarterback. This season has arguably been one of his better seasons.

Throughout the 2007 preseason and regular season, Favre has continually been impressing fans with his passing plays. That is why he is my pick for midseason MVP.

The guy has taken control of his team, like a good quarterback should, and allowed his team to have its best record in years.

Not only has Favre been throwing plenty of yards this season, but in week four he threw his 421st touchdown pass of his career. Not bad, considering he now holds the NFL record for TD passes.

The Packers split the season last year with eight wins and eight losses. Looks like Favre wasn’t too pleased with those results.

Now I don’t like making fun of San Francisco – oh wait yeah I do – but Alex Smith has a nice 800 yards this season. He’s probably been sacked more times than he has thrown the ball.

But then look over at Green Bay and Favre is probably smiling as he throws another 300 or so yards each game.

The ability to have your quarterback make successful plays is all that matters. Just look at the win column compared to the loss column.

Favre has managed to turn his Packers around into a winning organization that has plenty of opportunity to do big things this year. He has impressed football critics to take the team he has and play to its ability.

I don’t know how many quarterbacks could really deal with doing so many short-passing plays over and over again, yet Favre has made it his mission to see that his team sticks to what is working.

That is leadership, my friends. And that is why Favre is my midseason MVP pick.

The Hornet Sportsdesk can be reached at [email protected]