Premature Tweet-ulation

There were reports that Packer Clay Matthews had won Defensive Player of the Year.

Those reports were apparently erroneous, as Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu won it, instead.

I suppose you're expecting a post full of bitterness about the tease of Matthews winning, only to have Polamalu, who plays for the Packers' Super Bowl opponent.

Not only am I not bitter about the early reports, but it doesn't bother me at all that a guy who is probably not even the best defensive player on his own team won the league-wide award.

The problem with awards like this is that there really isn't any set criteria. It's a major issue if it's decided that these awards really matter.

If you think they do, you should want some sort of criteria in place, so the voters don't have to base their decisions on things like "They lost to the Jets when he was hurt."

Of course, that's a more well-informed decision than "The other guy is buddies with Brian Cushing, and look what happened to him."

No, I don't know that it was a factor. But I know that a lot of the AP voters felt Cushing was undeserving of the Defensive Rookie of the Year award after they found out he was caught using a banned substance during the season in which he won.

And I know Matthews and Cushing aren't exactly strangers.

I also know that dumber theories have worked their way into votes like this in the past, so it wouldn't surprise me one bit.

In the end, it's pretty funny that some tweeted the wrong result to the voting. Given how close it was, I wonder if some sort of exit polling was the reason for the incorrect information getting out there. If so, it's very refreshing to see that major news networks aren't the only ones who can screw up exit polling.

Let's face it, that's how Polamalu won.

(Oh, and how can you not love that hair?)