Merry Christmas Bonner County sports fans.

It’s been said that Santa keeps a naughty and nice list, and of course he loves sports.

So it’s probably not a surprise which list the Philadelphia Eagles fans end up on, having once famously booed and thrown snowballs at Santa during a football game.

Since it’s Christmas Day, let’s examine a few people on the nice list, and a few that might be on that other one.

NICE: Madi Schoening and Grace Kirscher. Assistant coach Will Love called them “The Big Two,” and it makes perfect sense. Both are among the top players in North Idaho, able to fill up a stat sheet in a hurry.

But what gets them on the nice list is their work at the other end of the floor, as both take pride in their defense. It’s a great sign, because while shooting can run hot and cold, strong defense will be there every night.

NAUGHTY: The schemes opposing coaches will employ to slow the Bulldog pair down offensively.

NICE: The Sandpoint football team advancing to the state championship game.

NAUGHTY: The football players’ jump shots shortly after trading cleats for sneakers. But again, defense doesn’t slump, and the boys basketball team can play some defense. When the last of the rust is knocked off, and the offense starts to click, the team could be dangerous down the stretch.

NICE: High school basketball officials who let teams play, while calling what needs to be called, often making for an enjoyable, action-filled game to watch.

NAUGHTY: High school basketball officials who call too many fouls and get teams into the bonus in the first and third quarters, often making for more slogging second and fourth quarters.

NICE: Mother Nature to local skiers.

NAUGHTY: Shoveling two feet of snow.

NICE: Steph Curry’s jumper. A talking head on ESPN threw out a ridiculous stat the other day, something along the lines of Curry making 17 of 26 attempts this season from beyond 28 feet. That’s ridiculous. There was talk a few years back about adding a four point shot, maybe the time is now.

NAUGHTY: The nightmares defenders must have the night before facing the Warriors. As good as Curry shoots, he’s most dangerous blowing by close-outs and attacking the tin, finding rim runners and Klay Thompson for easy hoops when defenses collapse.

NICE: The polished inside moves and surprising range of the Zags’ Domantas Sabonis, whose NBA stock is sizzling.

NAUGHTY: The nagging back of potentiall NBA lottery teammate Przemec Karnowski? The two together? Wowza.

NICE: The streaking Seahawks’ chances of winning the Super Bowl.

NAUGHTY: The gritty defense of the Panthers, who look like the team Seattle will have to get by eventually. What a game that would be, pitting the two most dynamic quarterbacks in the game today against each other.

NICE: Russell Wilson. Hopefully it’s not lost on local fans that they might be witnessing the greatest quarterbacking in the history of the sport right now. In the past five games, he’s completed 74 percent of his passes, averaged a gaudy 10 yards per attempt and tossed 19 touchdowns without an interception.

But stats don’t do justice to great quarterbacking. Manning and Brady are incredibly efficient system quarterbacks, who consistently put up far superior stats to Wilson, but when was the last time one of them did something that dropped the jaw?

Wilson does it a handful of times every game.

NAUGHTY: Browns coach Mike Pettine. In a ham-handed attempt to no doubt get under Wilson’s skin, Pettine said in a press conference that the Seahawks QB isn’t in the elite class of the NFL. Wilson then cut up his defense, both on the ground and through the air.

I’ve drawn laughs when I claim Doug Flutie is the best quarterback I’ve ever seen play, but it’s the truth. He played exactly like Wilson does, but the dinosaur thinking among NFL scouts decades ago was that sub-6-foot quarterbacks couldn’t cut it. How you like 5-foot-10 Russell Wilson now?

Like Flutie, Wilson boasts a deceptively strong and accurate arm, and becomes most dangerous when he takes off. How many times in the last five weeks has Wilson gashed a defense on the ground before either sliding or running untouched out-of-bounds? And defensive lineman can forget about the notion of actually tackling him, they’d have to get a hand on him first.

Oh yeah, the two diminutive signal caller are winners, gamers, anti-Jay Cutlers, if you will. Unfortunately, Flutie’s brilliance was wasted in Canada, where he racked up MVP’s and Grey Cups. Late in his career he dominated in the NFL with both the Bills and the Chargers, but even then never really got a chance. Who knows how many Super Bowls he might have won if he played today.

Wilson already has one, should have two, and could be primed to win a few more.