The St. Louis Rams tried their hardest to put up one last fight in this incredibly disappointing season, as they scored 17 points in the 4th quarter to make the NFC West champion San Francisco 49ers really sweat over earning the No. 2 seed in the playoffs and a first round bye. Ultimately, the 49ers, led by my NFL MVP pick David Akers – he only kicked two more field goals and threw a touchdown, nothing special – defeated the Rams 34-27, and that’s awesome if you’re a 49ers fan but it sucks for Rams fans. Thankfully, one Fox Sports cameraman gave Rams fans a ray of light for their New Year.

During the third quarter, the cameraman in question caught bosomy Rams cheerleader Holly (seen above) on camera and gave her the completely unnecessary but totally appreciated slow motion treatment. Who says miracles only come at Christmas?

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One of the most obvious points that can be made – and surely has been made – about the San Francisco 49ers this season is that Alex Smith could be even better than his current just-good-enough status if he had a clear cut No. 1 receiver. Even without one, he’s still managed to put together a decent enough statline of 3,000 yards (most likely) with 16 TDs and only 5 INTs. Somewhere Trent Dilfer is nodding his head in approval.

The guy that was supposed to be that difference maker in the receiving corps was Braylon Edwards, who signed a sweetheart deal with the 49ers while rehabbing his knee. Turns out that knee never healed enough and Edwards couldn’t be the receiver the NFC West champs wanted him to be, and for that they released him today. Boy, I bet he’s super pissed about that. Give ‘em hell, Ol’ Dropsies.

“I was released today by the 49ers due to my injury that required more time to rehab and hasn’t allowed me to re-sync with the offense. I wish the 49ers organization the best of luck during the Playoffs. I will be working hard this off season to strengthen my knee and prepare for the 2012 season. Thanks for your continued support and for being such loyal fans.”

I suppose the first thing he’ll want to do is change that banner title on his website. But it’s cool that he holds no ill feelings toward San Fran and he’s willing to wish them luck. Now, though, the team is a man short and my choice for MVP, kicker David Akers, can’t carry this team all on his own like he did during the regular season.

So let’s go ahead and make our way down to the rumor bomb shelter and prepare for Terrell Owens rumors in 3… 2… 1…

When this season’s awards are eventually given out, Aaron Rodgers is going to be the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. There will be compelling cases for his QB peers Tom Brady and Drew Brees, who will probably break Dan Marino’s passing record tonight. And many sports writers will cry foul that Ray Rice, who has been virtually silent about his contract situation with the Baltimore Ravens in the classiest way possible, deserves it for carrying the Baltimore Ravens to the playoffs. But having had more sleep in the past few days than I get in most months, my brain is firing off insane ideas today, including the argument that San Francisco 49ers kicker David Akers deserves to be NFL MVP. You read that right.

Trust me, I know how absurd this is and I deserve everyone calling me insane and throwing lit cigarettes at me, because in no universe should a kicker mean more to his team than a QB, RB or All-Pro linebacker. But the 49ers have had such an incredible season, seeing as most morons – *points to self* – figured this would be a cake walk year in the NFC West for the St. Louis Rams, who ended up being a bigger disappointment than Sucker Punch. Before you start lining up to give me atomic wedgies, though, let’s at least look at the numbers.

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Candlestick Park went blackout dark twice during last night’s Monday Night Football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and depending on your level of inner demons your brain should go to one of two jokes: “pretty funny that a place called ‘candlestick’ would burn out like that” or “did anybody get shot?” The second one isn’t a joke as much as a concern, but don’t worry, you weren’t the only one thinking it.

From the Associated Press:

Two power outages delayed the Niners’ 20-3 Monday night win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, first just before kickoff and again early in the second quarter after the stadium moved to a backup power source.

NFL security chief Jeff Miller said he witnessed a transformer blow up while he was monitoring a gate outside the stadium, where a shooting during the preseason already put a negative light on this venue.

Eventually the lights came back on and stayed that way, and San Fran rolled to a 20-3 victory. Nobody was injured or murdered (that we know of) and nothing had to be postponed, so the game’s legacy lies in a gallery of videos and images depicting sudden darkness, dogs being led around the stadium by policemen and a sad line of cheerladies who just wanted to put on their Santa Claus dresses and shake a pom pom for our enjoyment. Those are the real victims.

Anyway, please enjoy said gallery, and yes, the Santa dresses are in there.

[pics credit to Getty Images, AP Photo and Reuters Images]

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Sadly, not photoshopped.

Suck for Luck. It’s a pretty simple phrase, right? I mean, it shouldn’t take a team of rocket scientists to comprehend that Stanford QB Andrew Luck is the top QB prospect in college football right now and his name rhymes with suck. Therefore, “Suck for Luck” isn’t exactly unique and I certainly don’t take credit for coming up with the phrase, and this certainly isn’t the only site that posts a “Suck for Luck” power ranking each week. (We’ve just been posting this one longer than the others, so thanks for that.)

I bring this up because I read a humorous argument on the Twitters last week between people taking credit for the “Suck for Luck” campaign, with one person going as far as to claim he came up with it when Luck was a freshman. I won’t point any fingers because this is frivolous and these people don’t deserve the attention, but I just wanted to take a moment to remind people that fans of the Indianapolis Colts and the Miami Dolphins actually have a reason to remain involved with their seasons, no matter what Dwight Freeney and Karlos Dansby think about it.

Let’s not ruin that by being douchebags about taking credit for something that a 5-year old could have created. If we can all agree on that, let’s get on with this week’s suck.

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@Jeff_McLane: #Eagles QB Michael Vick will no longer have a Monday radio show on WIP.

Try to put your heart back together, I need to report this news.

During the preseason, when Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles were an unstoppable Dream Team who could be stopped by no designable defense, WIP’s “Chickie and Pete’s Players Lounge” on Monday nights was promoting weekly appearances from the QB and Forgiven Dog Murderer. He showed up after Philly’s Week 1 victory over the St. Louis Rams, but didn’t show up to participate after week 2, when the Eagles lost to the Atlanta Falcons, or in week 3, when they lost to the New York Giants. Week 4 and a 24-23 loss to the San Francisco 49ers came and went, and I guess braggadocious radio shows aren’t fun when you’re 1-3, so Vick is electing to spend Monday nights at home, doing whatever it is he does for fun (now).

Mike Vick Radio was a no-win scenario (okay, a 1-win scenario) from the start. Chris Chase of Shutdown Corner shares his insight:

He should never have agreed to host a show in the first place. What’s the best case scenario there? Since no national attention gets paid to local radio programs unless something goes wrong, the upside was that a handful of people in Philadelphia listen and decide they like Michael Vick more than they thought. The downside is that Vick makes comments that provide fodder for his next 10 press conferences.

My insight is that Chickie and Pete and the radio disc jockeys they sponsor should go full-on Weenie And The Butt with Vick and just play his press conferences with boing sound effects and bicycle horns in the background. Thank goodness they’re broadcasting informally from a Lounge and aren’t in a radio studio, where this announcement would be disastrous for them.