The Awards Section

Four-time Pro Bowler Bryant Young ended his 14-year career on Sunday. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

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Offensive Player of the Week

New England QB Tom Brady. Brady played a magnificent record-breaking finale in the 38-35 win over the Giants (32-42, 356 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions). He had an NFL-record 50 touchdowns, eight interceptions, 4,805 yards (third all-time for one season), 68.9 percent completion rate and a 117.2 rating this season. He's only the fourth quarterback to average 300 passing yards per game for a season, and, as NBC/HBO stat maven Elliott Kalb pointed out, Brady's the only cold-weather quarterback to ever do that. Dan Marino, Kurt Warner (dome) and Dan Fouts are the only guys in the 300-yard-average club. And how about this scheduling note: The Patriots' post-Thanksgiving games, all six of them, happened outside in the north. And New England played one dome game all year. All things considered, this seems obvious: We've just seen the best season a quarterback ever had.

Defensive Player of the Week

San Francisco DL Bryant Young. Just one tackle in the last game of his life, the 49ers' loss at Cleveland, but the game has lost an excellent player and an even better ambassador. Young, as classy a guy as the NFL employs, bent down at midfield after the game and became emotional, his 14-year career over. "I was just taking a minute there, giving thanks and realizing how blessed I've been to play a game every kid grows up dreaming of playing,'' he said via cell phone afterward. "All good things must come to an end, and my life has been blessed because I've been able to be a pro football player.'' The 35-year-old defensive tackle/end -- who had two double-digit-sack years as a pure tackle earlier in his career -- has played about 85 percent tackle as a pro. That makes his 89.5 sacks in 208 career games all the more impressive -- the fact that he comes from the inside most of his career and had to battle the interior scrum instead of rushing from outside where most of the big sack guys come from.

"He's one of the best interior linemen ever,'' Jerome Bettis said at NBC, watching Young walk off the field for the last time at Cleveland. "He and Warren Sapp were the best, I think. Bryant was dominant. We had to know where he was on every snap.''

I talked to Niners coach Mike Nolan after the game, and he told me Young's been a leader on the scale of Ray Lewis. "The way he's influenced so many young players is such an important part of his career,'' Nolan said. "He loves to be first in all the drills, and he'll hustle to get there, just to be first. Now he's got guys who will actually race to get to the drills in front of him.'' And he's a Pro Bowler too. How blessed have the 49ers been to have him?

Special Teams Players of the Week

Houston WR André Davis, with 97- and 104-yard touchdown returns on kickoffs in the first 31 minutes of the Texans' game against Jacksonville. In a year of record returns, Davis had one of the most explosive days a returner could have.

Cleveland KR/PR Josh Cribbs. Imagine having 129 punt-return yards at the end of the first quarter. His 74-yard touchdown on a punt return was the first punt return score of his career and cemented his status as the returner of the year in the NFL -- with all due respect given to Devin Hester. I'm not saying Cribbs is better than Hester, because he's not. But he had more opportunities, and he had 629 more return yards. And in this game, he had a 94-yard kickoff return for touchdown called back on a horrible holding call against wedge-man Lennie Friedman.

New York Giants WR Domenik Hixon, whose 74-yard kick return for touchdown stunned the Patriots and gave the Giants a 14-10 lead early in the second quarter on Saturday night. Hixon has been battling mental demons since leveling Kevin Everett in Week 1 as a Denver special-teamer; the collision left Everett with a spinal injury. Signed by the Giants in October, he hadn't made a big play until Saturday. The Giants got some help on the play because Randy Moss was flagged for excessive celebration on the previous play. Stephen Gostkowski kicked to Hixon at the Giants 26. He made a hard juke left near midfield and beat Gostkowski along the left sideline, skating home for the score. "That return was a clinic,'' said Tom Coughlin. The return came at a time when the Giants were battling to stay afloat offensively and kept them in the game.

Coach of the Week

Washington coach Joe Gibbs. It's simple. The Redskins, three days after they buried defensive leader Sean Taylor, and four days after Gibbs' timeout blunder contributed to a loss to Buffalo, had to run the table to have a chance at the playoffs. From that point, they won by eight over Chicago, by 12 over the Giants, by 11 over Minnesota, and by 21 over Dallas. That last rout of their arch-rivals gave Washington the sixth seed in the NFC playoffs and a berth in Saturday's wild-card round at Seattle. The team could have splintered. It united instead, and bonded with a coach who might have slunk off into a second retirement unfulfilled.

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