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Is J.J. Watt The Best Male Athlete Of 2015?

Tonight J.J. Watt may add more hardware to his quickly-swelling awards cabinet in his never-ending pursuit to dominate the known universe. See what categories he has been nominated for in tonight's 2015 ESPY Awards. Vote and join the conversation.

By Capt Ron
"and the winner is...."
"and the winner is...."
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

When it comes to awards shows, I tend to keep my expectations low, since the results are more often determined by emotion and shallow popular opinion instead of by quantitative data and performance-based measurements.  On many occasions, awards voters apply a personal agenda to the lens they use to determine the best actor, best athlete, and various other awards categories, so it leaves much of the viewing audience frustrated with the results.  That being said, I'm pretty excited for J.J. Watt.

He is the face of our Houston Texans, perhaps even the face of the NFL, and I don't know that I have seen any other athlete more deserving to be recognized for his effort and results.  Watt was recently chosen by his peers as the best player in the NFL.  Will that be reflected tonight?  He is nominated for an ESPY in two categories:

Best NFL Player

Will the ESPY voters side with the NFL sportswriters who voted for Rodgers as the NFL MVP, or will they see the wisdom in the way the "real-life-actual" NFL players voted when they notched Watt as the top player in the league? Could they do something even crazier and award the honor to Tom Brady, who is dividing his time between polishing a new Super Bowl ring and appealing a suspension for his part in a deflated-football scandal?  Perhaps they throw us all for a loop and recognize standout wide receiver Antonio Brown.

Best Male Athlete

It stands to reason that Watt and Rodgers should have the edge in the "Best NFL Player" category since they are the only two from the NFL who made it to the "Best Male Athlete" nomination.  Then again, there isn't a lot of logic in the way these awards shows tend to work, so who knows?

How do you see it playing out tonight?

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