LOS ANGELES — Apologies for not posting last week, sometimes life gets in the way. I did, however, compile my rankings without recaps; if you’re curious, you can check them out here. As for Week 17, here are some thoughts as we head into the final Sunday of a truly amazing 2012 regular season.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. I spent a lot of time flipping channels and watching various holiday programming. In no particular order, here are my Top Christmas Movies of All-Time: Bad Santa, Christmas Vacation, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause, Die Hard, Elf and Home Alone.

OK, let’s find out who’s The Man.

32.) Jacksonville Jaguars (record: 2-13) (last week: 32)

31.) Kansas City Chiefs (2-13) (30)

30.) Oakland Raiders (3-12) (31)

29.) Arizona Cardinals (5-10) (29)

28.)New York Jets (6-9) (28)

27.) Philadelphia Eagles (27)

26.) Detroit Lions (4-11) (26)

25.) Tennessee Titans (5-10) (25)

24.) Cleveland Browns (5-10) (22)

23.) Buffalo Bills (5-10) (21)

22.) San Diego Chargers (6-9) (24)

21.) Carolina Panthers (6-9) (23)

20.) St. Louis Rams (7-7-1) (20)

19.) Miami Dolphins (7-8) (19)

18.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-9) (18) 

17.) New Orleans Saints (7-8) (17) — Can’t believe Sean Payton got a 5-year extension. Would’ve bet he’d been the Cowboys coach next season.

16.) Pittsburgh Steelers (7-8) (16) — At the beginning of the season I wondered if the Steelers were any good for just decimated by injures; turns out both were right. Not that good and injures took their toll.

15.) Dallas Cowboys (8-7) (15) — Tony Romo and Dez Bryant have carried me to the title game in the only fantasy league I’m alive in, and for some reason plays all 17 weeks. Hoping for another big game from them Sunday night.

14.) New York Giants (8-7) (10) — In a weird way, this Giants team is very similar to last year’s squad that made a Super Bowl run. Go figure.

13.) Chicago Bears (9-6) (14) — I’m guessing the Bears will find a way to sneak into the playoffs, but they can’t suffer any more injuries.

12.) Cincinnati Bengals (9-6) (13) — I’ll be curious to see how the Bengals play against the Ravens this weekend. Do they take it easy or look to build some momentum heading into the playoffs?

11.) Baltimore Ravens (10-5) (12) — Ray Lewis said to be returning for the playoffs; but will it matter?

10.) Minnesota Vikings (9-6) (11) — Adrian Peterson needs 208 yards for the all-time single season rushing record. Eric Dickerson is very worried. Goggles and all.

9.) Indianapolis Colts (10-5) (9) — If you don’t think the Colts aren’t going to play BIG when Chuck Pagano is back on the sideline this weekend, you don’t know sports.

8.) Washington Redskins (9-6) (7) — N0-brainer move of the season flexing this week’s game against the Cowboys to Sunday night; nothing better in the sports than the Win-And-In regular season finale.

7.) San Francisco 49ers (10-4-1) (2) — There’s no shame in getting boatraced by the Seachickens. But this team is slipping.

6.) New England Patriots (11-4) (3) — Is there any Super Bowl contender limping towards the playoffs as badly as the Patriots? They’re like Willem Defoe at the end of “Platoon.” OK, maybe not that bad, but it’s close.

5.) Seattle Seahawks (10-5) (8) — This team can win the Super Bowl and definitely are the 2012 NFL Boat Race Team of the Year (spoiler alert for my NFL Awards column next week).

4.) Green Bay Packers (11-4) (6) — The Packers can win and get the 2 seed, but I’m guessing they’re more concerned with not giving up 200 yards again to Adrian Peterson.

3.) Atlanta Falcons (13-2) (5) — Couple of pretty convincing wins the last two weeks by the Falcons, reminding everyone that the road to the Super Bowl in the NFC goes through the Georgia Dome.

2.) Houston Texans (13-2) (4) — You talk about games that make your butthole pucker up, you got one this weekend at Indianapolis; Texans could either have homefield throughout the playoffs or be the 3 or 4 seed. Crazy.

1.) Denver Broncos (12-3) (1) — Peyton Manning. And Knowshawn Moreno? Wow.