That’s the way you wrap up a season.

We’re down to the last weekend of the 2011 NFL football season and as far as the NFC East is concerned, absolutely nothing is decided yet.

This Sunday, the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys, two teams atop the shockingly weak NFC East, play on Sunday with a spot in the playoffs on the line. And no matter how bad these two teams were this season, a win on Sunday will definitely make everything ok.

So who has the edge? Both the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys are ran by two pretty good but inconsistent quarterbacks and hasn’t gone to the level that Aaron Rodgers was able to reach the last two years.

The argument over which team’s quarterback is better has been ongoing for years. The outcome of Sunday’s game will give one fan base the upper hand, but it is hardly likely to settle anything – at least in the scope of this debate.

Dallas quarterback Tony Romo has most of the gaudy numbers. He has Giants quarterback Eli Manning bettered in most career categories, and in 2011 numbers with the exception of yardage. Romo is a career 64.3 percent passer with a 96.8 passer rating. This season he has a 65.4 percent completion rate, a 102.2 passer rating (fourth in the league), 29 touchdown passes and just nine interceptions.

What Romo does not have is playoff success, having just one…

In case you didn’t know, Brock Lesnar will climb back to the Octagon this Saturday.

And that will be on December 30, as the UFC sends off 2011 in style with a match between Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem who’ll be making his debut inside the Octagon for UFC 141.

The last UFC card of the year features a face-off between big guys, Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem, with the winner facing UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos. The night of fights will also have a preliminary card available for Facebook viewers and another card available to watch on Spike TV.

The main card remains exclusive on pay-per-view and has been moved back to the 10 p.m. eastern-time start in an attempt by the UFC to regain footing in a slipping pay per view market.

For Brock Lesnar, this means a chance to regain a title he has previously held and successfully defended in the past. A victory also adds to Lesnar’s status as the highest paid athlete in MMA, earning an approximate 5.3 million dollars in 2010. For Alistair Overeem, a victory means a chance to own yet another MMA heavyweight title after only two fights in the UFC.

He could add that to an impressive list of titles including the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix Champion Kickboxer, the 2005 Abu Dhabi Combat Club European Trials Champion, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship, the Dream Heavyweight Championship and two-time World MMA awards International Fighter of the Year (2010, 2011).

Overeem is taller (by two inches) and a little lighter than Lesnar possibly making him the former WWE superstars’ most physically intimidating…

A lot.

For a group dubbed as the ”Dream Team” heading into the 2011 NFL football season, missing the playoffs is definitely a big disappointment.

It’s been well-documented in recent days – the Philadelphia Eagles season is over! Well, it’s not technically over but with the playoffs officially out of the reach of the so-called ”Dream Team,” this season is a bust.

Still the 7-8 Eagles have played their best football all season in recent weeks, looking inspired as they march towards avoiding a losing season. But should they? Are the Eagles better off tanking Week 17 against the Redskins than letting the little thing called pride take hold when they hit the field?

The answer in short is no. The Eagles would be better served losing to the Washington Redskins this Sunday than winning their fourth in a row, and here’s why.

There is a fervent Fire Andy movement that I don’t see getting their New Year’s wish should the Birds beat the Skins.
Lose Sunday and the Eagles brass could choose to dump Andy Reid and possibly some of his embattled coaching staff (a.k.a. defensive coordinator Juan Castillo) using the reasoning that they couldn’t utilize talent to even salvage a .500 season. Win and it’s difficult to fire a coach coming off a four-game winning streak who has had only one losing season (6-10 in 2005) this millennium.

At 8-8 the Eagles would lose draft order. After beating the Cowboys…

And since he wants to be traded to New Jersey, this game on Thursday night is one interesting matchup indeed.

The most intriguing games on the Orlando Magic schedule have typically involved the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat. This 2011-12 NBA basketball season, that distinction belongs to the New Jersey Nets.

Dwight Howard’s desire to be traded to the New Jersey Nets has transformed Thursday night’s Magic-Nets matchup at Amway Center into a must-see game.

Asked why he’s interested in the Nets, Howard responded, “We’re not talking about the Nets right now. We’re talking about the Magic. That’s the team I play for. There’s no need to talk about any other team, who is interested in them or not. So I’m not going to get into a discussion about it.”

But while Dwight Howard does not want to talk publicly about his future, basketball fans in both markets are watching his every move. In the second half of New Jersey’s 106-70 home loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, Nets fans inside Prudential Center in Newark chanted, “We want Dwight!” or “We want How-ard!”

Howard acknowledged he watched some of the game, but he claimed that he had his TV set on mute and…

Yeah, and they need a lot of retooling to do before they face the red hot Thunder team from Oklahoma on Thursday night.

After an emotional start to the 2011-12 NBA basketball season on Christmas night, the same night they got their NBA championship rings, they were blown away by last year’s runners-up as the Miami Heat simply blasted them for all four quarters.

A slight speed bump perhaps coming out of the gates? Surely, losing to a team as talented as the Miami Heat is no reason to panic just yet. After all, it was still the first game of the 66-game season.

But after the Dallas Mavericks lost yet again, to a Denver Nuggets team that is still searching for that one big star looking to carry them over the hump, they just have to panic now.

In case you missed it, the Denver Nuggets opened their season with a performance that sent a clear message to the rest of the NBA but it’s not about them though. It’s about the Dallas Mavericks.

The reigning champions have quickly become a team everyone wants to play. There’s no telling which is worse right now, their offense or defense, their conditioning or chemistry, as they were drubbed for a second straight game, losing 115-93 to the Nuggets on Monday night.

“We look old and slow and out of shape – a bad combination…”

It’s a whole new era in New York people.

After the New York Knicks kick off the 2011-12 NBA basketball season in style, beating their rivals Boston Celtics 106-104, this year’s Knicks team are looking mighty fine as they welcome their campaign with a whole lot of confidence.

There was joy again at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, a blend of holiday cheer, pent-up expectation and the thrill of the NBA’s belated return after a long, strange off-season. The joy gave way to anxiety, then a bit of nastiness. But it ended with a final burst of merriment and the New York Knicks got a 106-104 victory over the Boston Celtics in the NBA’s first game since June.

Carmelo Anthony, playing in his first opening day as a Knick, scored 37 points, including the go-ahead free throws with 16.3 seconds left. The debut of the Knicks’ towering new frontcourt was a success, with Amar’e Stoudemire adding 21 points and Tyson Chandler providing just enough paint presence to make it all stand up.

Along the way, the Knicks built and squandered a 17-point lead, lost Iman Shumpert to a knee injury and, most significant, got the attention of a Celtics team that played without Paul Pierce.

”We showed something today,” Carmelo Anthony said, adding later, ”This is a new beginning for us.”

Anthony carried the Knicks for long stretches and was dominant when it mattered most, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter. He was efficient, too, going 10 for 17 from the field and 13 for 15 from the line, while grabbing 8 rebounds. His only blemish was in the turnover column, with five.

The Knicks were fortunate to get the victory after giving up…

And if the Heat’s season opener in Dallas was to tell us anything about this team, Boston is in for one tough night.

The Miami Heat opened up the shortened 2011-12 NBA basketball season with style and conviction. On the night that the Dallas Mavericks received their championship rings, they got more than that when the night was over. They got a Christmas beating to boot.

Yes, the Miami Heat looked mighty impressive on the NBA’s Christmas opener, spanking the Dallas Mavericks 105-94. Yeah, trust me when I say that the final score don’t do justice how lopsided this game was.

On Tuesday night, the Boston Celtics are coming to Miami to face this year’s Heat team. And in case you missed Miami’s opener in Dallas, let’s just say it will take more than Kevin Garnett’s antics to get the better of this team this time.

For one, LeBron James was simply on a roll against Dallas. Minutes after Dallas unfurled its 2010-11 championship banner in a pregame ceremony on Christmas Day, the best basketball player on the planet unleashed his fury as the Heat dismantled the Mavericks, 105-94.

Sure it came six months too late but it was at least a measure of…

As of this writing, the Lakers are locking horns with the Kings in Sacramento.

That’s just a day after Derrick Rose lifted the Chicago Bulls over this Lakers team to kickoff the 2011-12 NBA basketball season. Yeah, I can only imagine what kind of shape the Lakers will be in once they return home on Tuesday for the Jazz and with the way they lost to the Bulls in the season opener, it probably took a lot out of them.

The lockout cost the league its traditional 82-game schedule, so the Los Angeles Lakers must cram 66 games into 124 days, including a back-to-back-to-back situation to start the season.

After losing to Chicago, 88-87, on Sunday, the Lakers play in Sacramento on Monday before returning home Tuesday to play the Utah Jazz. They haven’t played three games in three days since the lockout-shortened season of 1999.

“I really don’t even remember much [of that] because I was like 19,” Kobe Bryant said. “I don’t even know if I was tired or not.”

Things could be worse for the Lakers. They played 50 games in 89 days in 1999, including three sets of back-to-back-to-backs. They have only one such run this season. The Clippers, by comparison, have two sets of them, including a rapid-fire trip in March at Indiana, Oklahoma City and New Orleans on consecutive days.

“It’s better to get them done now while we’re still fresh,” Bryant said…

Playing against these guys is like challenging your grandpa to a footrace.

Kidding aside, what’s in store for the Boston Celtics big three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen this 2011-12 NBA basketball season?

You see, while the rest of the NBA was locked out, the Boston Celtics were locked in. The Big 3 and Rajon Rondo, who led Boston to its unprecedented 17th NBA championship in 2008, were already signed and ready for another run at the title.

So while the defending champion Dallas Mavericks were trying to replace Tyson Chandler and Chris Paul was trying to figure out which side of the Staples Center to report to, the Boston Celtics were simply resting up for the season to start.

“It does help, having the five guys back,” coach Doc Rivers said, throwing center Jermaine O’Neal into the mix with Rondo and the Big 3 of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.

The lockout that wiped out the first seven weeks of the season has widely been seen as a gift to the ageing Celtics, who would benefit from the extra time off and the shortened season. But because the 66-game schedule has been compressed, with fewer off-days and frequent strings of three games in four nights, the labor strife may not have done the team any favors.

“We’re all figuring it out. It’s going to be a period where…”

After the Lakers tried to trade him in his team’s pursuit of Chris Paul, I won’t be surprised.

The Lakers failed miserably to get CP3 for the 2011-12 NBA basketball season after the deal that looked done for probably two minutes was vetoed. And when it was all over, all the Lakers had to show for was a whole lot of questions, starting with Pau Gasol on whether he’ll stay in LA or just play for someone else.

“We’re exploring it,” Pau Gasol can only say. It has been a crazy week for the Lakers and the NBA in general after all.

I’m not surprised L.A. have given up on his toughing it out inside. It wasn’t that long ago the Los Angeles Lakers had given up on him all together, nearly banishing him to Houston in a bid to get Chris Paul from New Orleans in what wold’ve been a big three-team trade. That’s what happens when you have a bad 10-game playoff stretch with the Lakers.

How soon everyone forgets. Gasol was the centerpiece of one of the all-time most lopsided NBA trades in history, helping the Lakers to advance to the Finals three straight years and win two titles.

If you think Kobe Bryant is unhappy now, imagine him still sitting on three rings if the Lakers hadn’t acquired Gasol. But now Gasol wouldn’t be surprised if he gets tossed aside.

“If the right opportunity comes along,” Gasol says, “they will take advantage of it.”

As dominant as he is on the court, and as solid as he has been off it as…