As we all know, Santa is furiously going through his list, making last-minute adjustments to who has been naughty and nice this year.  We won't find out whether we made the cut until Christmas morning, but I have a few North Pole connections, and Santa released to me a few days early those in sports who have been naughty and nice this year.  Please enjoy.

• Nice- Tony Romo.  More than just a 1-hit wonder, Romo went from phenom last year, to a stud this year.  He even convinced the Cowboys enough to the point they gave him a big-dollar contract mid-season instead of waiting till the end of the season like Jerry Jones wanted to.  Plus, he's dated Carrie Underwood and Jessica Simpson this year.  Santa may have already given Tony his best gifts this year.
• Naughty- Select members of the Florida State football team.  Beyond their lucky win in Boulder earlier this season, it came out that over 20 players were involved in an on-line cheating scandal and will miss the team's bowl game.  Not only do they miss out on free trip to Nashville for the Music City Bowl and all that comes with that, on-line classes are never that difficult.  Did you really need to cheat?
• Nice- Bosie State giving hope to the little guys.  If you were outside the state of Oklahoma, you were rooting for the Broncos.  And to see that statue of liberty work for the 2-point conversion is one of the top 10 plays I've ever seen.  True story, that night I stayed at work for an extra hour and a half because I didn't want to miss the end of that game.
• Naughty- Patriots.  I'll freely admit that I've never liked the Patriots.  But this year, they've actually given me reasons not to like them.  From Spy-gate to running up the score, is anyone outside of New England actually rooting for this team?  I doubt it.
• Nice- The Spurs.  One of the few teams that's of championship caliber both on and off the court.  It's not often in these days in sports to see a team that has players who can stay on the right side of the law, and do nice things in the community.
• Naughty- Tim Donaghy, Michael Vick, Barry Bonds.  All were huge stories over the summer, but for all the wrong reasons.  They overshadowed even the greatest of American success stories over the summer....Joey Chestnut bringing the Mustard Belt back to the USA, winning the July 4th hot dog eating contest.
• Oh-so-Close to being Nice- Terrell Owens.  TO was the model citizen for the first half of the season.  Heck, the first 14 weeks of the season.  But, he couldn't handle leaving the spotlight for the whole season, so he had to say what he did about Jessica Simpson.  I don't mean to make a "mountain hill" out of Owens' joke, but I think that one would have been better left on the cutting room floor.
• Naughty, but in a nice way- Brian Westbrook.  He had that brilliant play at the end of the Dallas-Philadelphia game.  Instead of scoring a meaningless touchdown with just over 2:00 left, he fell down on the 1-yard line and the Eagles were able to run out the clock.  Nice until you realize that Westbrook cost millions of fantasy owners a playoff victory.

I'd like to thank Santa for giving me insider access to his list.  We'll do it again next year.  Merry Christmas everybody.