Victor Cruz is the new NFL champion

Raise your hand if you thought both Victor Cruz AND Aaron Hernandez would catch touchdowns in Super Bowl XLVI.

I’m not raising my hand, but I’m sure excited about the future of Latinos in the NFL after watching these two guys make big-time plays in the big game. They’ve got a future, and they’ll inspire a lot of younger players to strive to make their mark in football.

But now, the 2011 NFL season has ended and we transition into an offseason that will be full of news, transactions, player movement and best of all, no lockout updates.

This league is unstoppable. Fans love their football and professed that love perhaps more than ever in 2011 despite the lockout. They kept coming to the games. They kept the TV ratings high. They reveled in wins and lashed out in defeats from city to city.

So as we the Latino football fans of America and beyond try to recover from post-Super Bowl hangover, we raise our glasses and plates of chips and dip one more time in salute of the memorable people and performances from our own this season.

Aaron Hernandez scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl against Giants (Getty Images)

Best Latino Single-Game Performance of the Year: Houston Texans running back Arian Foster (Mexican heritage) blew up against Tennessee on Oct. 23 when he rushed for 115 yards and two touchdowns and caught five passes for 119 yards and another score. Foster missed three games but ran for 285 total yards in two playoff games, proving that perhaps the game’s best all-around back could have had an even better season.

Chad Ochocinco Latino-Flair Touchdown Celebration of the Year: New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz’s salsa dance, because it was new, it was cultural, it was innovative, and it caught on. And he got to shuffle the feet in front of the world after catching a TD in the Super Bowl.

Tom Flores Latino Coach of the Year: Ron Rivera. The former NFL linebacker has his Carolina Panthers pointed toward what looks like a good future with phenom Cam Newton at quarterback. The Panthers lost a lot of close games early on their way to a 6-10 record but went 5-5 over the last 10 games of the season.

Anthony Munoz Best Latino Interior Lineman: A number of options here but the honor goes to New Orleans Saints center Brian De La Puente, a relative unknown commodity entering the season who toiled in practice squad obscurity for a few years until 2011. When the Saints’ Olin Kreutz left the team in October, De La Puente was handed the job of snapping the ball to and helping protect quarterback Drew Brees, and he performed well as Brees went on to set NFL, franchise and personal records with his passing.

Joe Kapp “Toughest Chicano” Award: Tony Romo, Dallas Cowboys. As Diamond Dallas Page once said as part of his pro wrestling promo: “You love me, you hate me, you’ll never forget me.” A lot of us, regardless of our feelings about the Dallas QB, won’t soon forget how Romo played with a fractured rib and led the Cowboys to a 27-24 overtme win at San Francisco in Week 2.

Latino Player of the Year: Cruz. Finished in the top 10 of four categories (catches, yards, touchdowns, yards per catch) in a breakout season for the second-year pro as the Giants turned an up-and-down season into an NFC championship and Super Bowl title. How do you top a touchdown in the Super Bowl, then a chance to hold the Lomabardi Trophy on a stage with your teammates after sweet victory? Cruz was as big a reason for the Giants’ success as anyone, now we’ll see how opponents adjust to him in 2012.