I am pleased to present this year’s recipient of the Steph Abbott Real (Effing) Man Award.  But first, a look at some past winners:

Proof that in the future, there will be RFM

As Letterman called him, the ass-kicking president

My 2010 winner, Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn

What, You Ask, Is the Selection Criteria?

Let’s begin with what the RFM Award does not recognize or imply.

A RFM is not necessarily a Romeo or a stud, although he often is because, well, he’s a RFM.
A RFM is not necessarily a nice guy, a good person, or someone you’d trust overnight with your daughter.

To receive this award, the character in question must do simply this: make me exclaim aloud, “Now that’s a real [effing] man!”  And after Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead (which you’ll notice I am still watching, despite my recent pointed criticisms) we have a winner.

RFM, 2011

2011′s RFM, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon in The Walking Dead

Oh, Daryl.  Still in dogged pursuit of a lost little girl.  Impaled by an arrow?  No problem.  Dead guy nibbling on your shoe?  You put him down hard.  Need ammo?  Yank the arrow out of your wounded flesh, load it in your crossbow and let fly.  Then you climb up a mountainside in agony (wearing a zombie ear necklace to make yourself smell like them) and stagger back to camp.  When confronted by friends who mistake your dogged pace for zombie-ism, you make a quip about them shooting you.  When one of them actually DOES shoot you, you collapse while making another quip.  And finally, while recovering, you apologize for not bringing back the missing child.

Now that’s a RFM.