E.K. NATION

If there is one thing we do right here at E.K. Nation, it's telling you, the semi-faithful reader, what the final score of the Super Bowl will be so that you can figure out who's going to beat the spread, and then bet lots of money, and then win big sums of money in proportion to the amount you wagered.

Here's our history:

SUPER BOWL XXXVIII: We predicted Carolina would defeat New England 19-17, which meant that Carolina would cover the 7-point spread as the underdog. The Panthers did indeed cover, losing by just three.

SUPER BOWL XXXIX: Our pick was that the Eagles would beat the Patriots 36-28, meaning New England would not cover the 7-point spread as the favorite. And indeed the Pats did not cover; they won by three.

SUPER BOWL XLI: We said that Pittsburgh would beat Seattle, handily at that; we projected the final score to be 38-3, meaning the 5-point spread was no big deal for Pittsburgh to cover. And it wasn't; the Steelers covered, winning 21-10.

So, we have no choice but to get another one right. We're three-for-three all-time in E.K. Nation Super Bowl sides history. We suck at pretty much everything else, as we tell you over and over and over again, but we're good when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday; nay, we are perfect. Here it is, kids...

HARK! The Chicago Bears will defeat the Indianapolis Colts by a final score of 27-22.

What this means is of course that the Bears, as 7-point underdogs, will cover. Chicago (+7) is the play! Go forth and multiply (your money amounts), my good sons (and daughters), upon hearing the good news this day!

Twenty-five years ago? Wow. We remember it as though it were, maybe, oh, 22 or 23 years ago. But nope, it was January 24, 1982, when we 49ers fans celebrated a Super Bowl win for the first time...

SUPPORTING ACTOR: What we got right: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine; Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls; Mark Wahlberg, The Departed. What we missed: Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children; Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond.

Now that Eddie Murphy has been nominated, it must be said, with a sigh, we have to see Dreamgirls now. And we're really not sure how we feel about this. We have to go out in public to do so. Not that there is anything wrong with being gay, but we really enjoy being heterosexual...Are we going to be gay afterwards? Speaking of the Bad News Bears (which we weren't), Kelly Leak got nominated.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: What we got right: Adrianna Barazza, Babel; Cate Blanchett, Notes On A Scandal; Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine; Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls; Rinko Kikuchi, Babel. What we missed: Nothing.

Good for little Abigail Breslin, who is all of, like, three years old. We haven't checked yet but she might be the youngest nominee ever. We'll get back to you on this one.

ACTRESS: Penelope Cruz, Volver; Judi Dench, Notes On A Scandal; Helen Mirren, The Queen, Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada; Kate Winslet, Little Children. What we missed: Nothing.

Wow. Ten-for-ten on the women acting nominations. Maybe we are good at this after all.

ACTOR: What we got right: Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson; Peter O'Toole, Venus; Will Smith, The Pursuit Of Happyness; Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland. What we missed: Leonardo diCaprio, Blood Diamond.

We understand that it is a bit of a surprise that diCaprio was nominated for Blood Diamond and not The Departed, and that Gosling was nominated at all; we heard there was a lot of good stuff being said about his performance but that he would be a long shot to get in.

DIRECTOR: What we got right: Stephen Frears, The Queen; Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu, Babel; Martin Scorsese, The Departed. What we missed: Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima; Paul Greengrass, United 93.

From our vantage point, it looks like it is finally the year Martin Scorsese wins an Oscar. Congratulations in advance, Marty. Honorable mention (if a nominated film can get such a designation): Completing a masterful telling of one of the September 11 flights is the final shot in Paul Greengrass' United 93; it's one of the most chilling closings we've ever seen, although we suppose this would have as much or more to do with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd. And we're not in the habit of predicting that category, so we thought we'd mention it here.

PICTURE: What we got right: Babel, The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen. What we missed: Letters From Iwo Jima.

We figured, just like everyone else, that Dreamgirls would at least be nominated here. So, we got one wrong. We don't feel bad; everyone else got it wrong too.

Our early picks to win are Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren for lead acting (these are locks), Alan Arkin and Jennifer Hudson for supporting acting (these are guesses), Scorsese for directing, and The Departed for Best Picture (the last two are locks as well). And as for our claim that this year would be the worst in E.K. Nation history for predicting the nominations? Well, we got 24 of 30 right, second-best in this blog's four-year history. This doesn't make up for our losing up sports predictions year after year.

Man. Have we even seen anything this year? Little Miss Sunshine; okay, there's one. Anything else? Can't think of it, if there is. We'll mention it if we remember as we go...we're planning on finally seeing Borat this afternoon.

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine; Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls; Jack Nicholson, The Departed; Brad Pitt, Babel; Mark Wahlberg, The Departed. Arkin is hysterical in Sunshine and would deserve a nod here, but out of everyone in this film, we think Paul Dano's mostly-silent performance was superior in a film full of great performances.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Adrianna Barazza, Babel; Cate Blanchett, Notes On A Scandal; Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine; Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls; Rinko Kikuchi, Babel. This is the category that typically allows for the most surprises or longshots. Some people were touting Catherine O'Hara from For Your Consideration, but that film was released too long ago and didn't keep any buzz the way Little Miss Sunshine has done. Hence, the nod towards Breslin over O'Hara here.

ACTRESS: Penelope Cruz, Volver; Judi Dench, Notes On A Scandal; Helen Mirren, The Queen, Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada; Kate Winslet, Little Children. Prada seems like a weird movie to cull an Oscar nominee from, but it's Streep, so we'll go with that. It's Dench, so we'll go with Dench, and Winslet, because she's Winslet. The winner here, though, appears to be Mirren. And again, we've seen nothing here thus far.

ACTOR: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat; Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson; Peter O'Toole, Venus; Will Smith, The Pursuit Of Happyness; Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland. After getting an honorary Oscar a couple years ago, O'Toole is back in the competitive category again in what many are calling one of his best performances yet. We think there's enough buzz to get Gosling and Whitaker in, and despite the Academy's failure to nominate Jim Carrey for anything so far, we think Borat is a big enough sensation to warrant a guess here, unlikely as it may seem to become reality. While not as original or funny a character as Marge Gunderson, Borat is somewhat close.

DIRECTOR: Bill Condon, Dreamgirls; Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine; Stephen Frears, The Queen; Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu, Babel; Martin Scorsese, The Departed. You just never know if Scorsese's gonna finally get his. And yes, at last check, Three 6 Mafia got an Oscar before Scorsese. Maybe this will be rectified somehow this year.

PICTURE: Babel, The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen. It's our understanding that The Departed is considered a favorite here, but then again, it's a Scorsese picture, which means Oscars are kind of hard to come by. Dreamgirls was an early favorite; not so much now.

This is probably going to be the least successful round of Oscar predictions we've ever offered up here. But that's in keeping with the spirit of our predicting things. We had Denver and Carolina in the Super Bowl. We know nothing.

NFC Championship:
• We didn't give the Bears much respect last week, neither for their prospects of winning against Seattle nor for their 13-3 record...and as it happens, they almost lost, with Seattle taking them to OT. This lack of respect (including the fact that the Bears are a mere two-point favorite to win this week--TWO points?) means Chicago and particularly quarterback Rex Grossman have something to prove. And they will get it done. It's just too much to ask for the Saints to win another game. The Bears will grind it out, and the fairy tale season for New Orleans comes to an end. BEARS (-2) win and cover, 27-10.

AFC Championship:
• The Colts finally get the Patriots at home in the playoffs. Now, we're just going to have to figure out whether that means anything. As good and as explosive as the Colts can be, this is the question: How do you go against New England? They made the Chargers' asses into hats during clutch time. They've won eight of their last ten. Oh, and this core group has won three Super Bowls since the 2001 season. Remember? Meanwhile, Indy went 3-4 to finish the season and has struggled offensively in the playoffs. Until the Colts win the Super Bowl, we will never pick them to get there again if they have to go through New England to do it. We're not going against the Pats. PATRIOTS (+3) win and cover, 34-27.

AFC Divisional Playoffs:
• The Colts are going back to Baltimore. And they are going to be served a big ol' dish of revenge. Ravens (-4) WIN and COVER, 31-17.

• San Diego can't be too happy about drawing the Patriots in round two. Philip Rivers against Tom Brady? Yes, we know that L.T. is the big man on the field for this one, but...it's tough to think Tom Brady will have trouble on his end. Something tells us that time-of-possession is going to be key here. It's a tough call; we'll see just how legit the Chargers' 14-2 record is. Chargers (-5) WIN and COVER, 30-20.

NFC Divisional Playoffs:
• Philly wasn't able to play strong against the Giants, but they still managed to eke out a win. Now they have to go into New Orleans, a city which is hungry for something great to happen. Drew Brees needs to just fire away. And that's what will happen. Saints (-6) WIN and COVER, 42-10.

• The Bears are the weakest 13-3 team in memory. Rex, you better get interested in playing this one, because the Bears are going to need 100% of what you've got. Not to mention a memory of last year's collapse against Carolina that needs erasing. Seattle might be a weak entry as well, but the defending NFC champs will be tough. They just picked up their biggest win of the year last weekend, namely by beating a team with a winning record (a first for them this year). The Bears fall short again. Seahawks (+9) WIN and COVER, 17-13.

We are not subscribers to the idea that sentences of import should be parsed into one-word sentences, such as "Oh. My. God.", but...

Oh. My. God.

Shame, shame, shame. Shame on us for not watching this game. It just didn't occur to us to tune in. Holy crap. This is the kind of game that makes you never want to not watch anything for the rest of your life just for the sole purpose of not missing it. You know?

We're thinking this clip contains the last few minutes of the greatest game of 2007. Congrats Boise State and Oklahoma for creating it.

ROGER FEDERER

E.K. NATION'S 2006 MAN OF THE YEAR

We haven't done a check on this, but we think the only mention of tennis that has ever been made on this blog is whenever we refer to Maria Sharapova's hotness. Which makes it kind of weird to suddenly proclaim Roger Federer to be E.K. Nation's Man Of The Year.

We don't follow tennis much. But one thing is undeniable: The guy had another amazing year, and he's been turning into one of the most dominant athletes in the world, all below the radar of the typical American sports media outlets. But we notice here at E.K. Nation. The guy won twelve tournaments, including three more Grand Slam championships. He was won 90 of his 95 matches, losing only to Rafael Nadal and Andrew Murray. The guy is on fire and is not to be trifled with. And he's now involved with UNICEF and Goodwill, doing some charity work, so that pretty much seals the deal. He'll retire the greatest player that tennis has ever seen, and we'll look back on our selection with pride.

Now, on to our annual week-by-week NFL playoffs prediction spectacular.

It must be said that we suck at predicting the NFL. For the second time in our short four-years of predicting the NFL playoffs, neither team we picked to go to the Super Bowl even made the playoffs. Congrats Denver and Carolina on fine seasons. We are pathetic at this. But we ramble on...

AFC Wild-Card Round:
• The Chiefs? The Chiefs made it? Well, now, that was out of the blue, wasn't it? Gosh. Well, Indy's not going to falter in this one. They've got some making up to do for last year's bungling of the Steeler game. And they will. Colts (-7) WIN and COVER, 36-17.

• The last two Jets playoff games have gone to overtime. We see it happening again, for some reason. Thus, we offer this one up: Patriots (-8.5) WIN but DO NOT COVER, 23-20 in overtime.

NFC Wild-Card Round:
• Dallas was looking good for a while, maybe even Super-Bowl-good. Now, not so much. But the Seahawks have been pretty crap-tacular all year, relatively speaking. The Niners made their asses into hats, twice, for cryin' out loud. Here's why we're going with Seattle: We picked Dallas to be in the NFC title game. Seahawks (-3)WIN and COVER, 20-7.

• The Eagles are strong, folks. Five wins in a row to complete the season, with Jeff Garcia of all people running the show at QB. And the Giants are faltering. Eli Manning is not a solid quarterback yet. The Eagles, save for about a quarter's worth of football, dominated New York in their two games this year. Which is totally why we're going to say this: Tiki's not done yet. He'll run for 222 yards and four TDs. Giants (+7) WIN and COVER, 37-32.

So who do we see making the Super Bowl? San Diego and Chicago. But we suck at this. So, congrats Eagles and Patriots!