This past Sunday afternoon of playoff football was by far the best 2 games of the playoffs this season. Sure, the Colts and Jets game was done after the colts took a two score lead, but before that it was pretty impressive, but the Saints/Vikings game was an ass load full of entertainment. You had Purple Jesus fumbling the ball left and right. You had Brett Favre playing like a kid, leading the league in smiles, and just gunslinging the ball into the hands of Vikings defenders, ultimately losing the game for his team. It was non stop entertainment and sure I was drunk most the time, but Goddammit, it was for my dollar the best weekend of playoff football yet.

I don’t even know if the Super Bowl can come close to this weekend. You had an overtime game, you had parts of games that were defensive masterpieces, you had parts of games that were offensive explosions, you had untimely pentalties, you had untimely turnovers, you had untimely fumbles and dropped interceptions that weren’t turnovers but should have been, you had challenges, booth reviews, and you had Brett Favre getting beat into the ground and looking like the old man that he is.  The Saints win and the Colts win.  Fun times.

This is what the NFL playoffs should be about. The previous Wild Card and Divisional games that preceeded this weekend of AFC and NFC Championships really cannot even compare. For both these games, you had two relatively evenly matched oppenents facing off their strength vs the other teams strength in a battle for the ultimate conquest…a chance at the Lombardi Trophy. The Jets’ suffocating defense versus the robotically efficient Colts’ offense. MATCHUP! The Vikings’ high flying offense and intense defense versus the Saints’ even more high flying offense and even more intense defense. MATCHUP!

Sorry to sound like an NFL fanboy but I was in heaven watching these games. If parity rules in the NFL then I hope every weekend is like this. Now, we have the Saints in their very first Super Bowl appearance versus the Colts.

The Colts are an extremely efficient offense that thrives on not making any mistakes with their precise attack and they are going against a defense that thrives on forcing their opponents into making mistakes. The Saints offense isn’t as efficient but their firepower makes up for it in that they have so many weapons to get the balls into the hands of, not to mention a quarterback that can put the ball into the hands of the playmakers when they are open. The Colts’ defense is solid, but will certainly have trouble matching up against the numerous options the Saints have.

This might be a Super Bowl I am genuinely excited about for the first time in a long time. Two high powered offenses against two generally decent defenses makes for a pretty evenly matched game with plenty of fireworks. Hooray for the NFL, David Stern couldn’t have planned for a better championship game.

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

I’ve got no horse in the MLB playoffs right now, my team lost 102 games this season, so I, the impartial viewer, just have this to say about last night…what the f$@!k was that? How does a team up 7-0 blow a lead like that? The Tampa Bay Rays might have a hard time recovering from a choke job of that kind of proportions. A 3-1 series lead, just 3 innings to the world series, and a 7-0 lead turns to a 3-2 series lead and all the momentum flowing the Red Sox way. After the numerous beat downs Tampa had put on the Sox, I thought this game was a mere formality, but now, this series just got interesting!

It’s unbelievable that Ozzie Guillen would come this far only to let evil win now. Of course, we’re talking about the evil that is Jay Mariotti. The terrorists will win if Guillen follows through on his threat to leave town.

Guillen will exile himself from Bartertown otherwise known as Chicago if the White Sox don’t make the playoffs.

“If we lose this thing, I’m going to ask [Chairman] Jerry Reinsdorf to give me the private plane,” Guillen said Saturday.

“I don’t have the guts to look at the people’s faces in O’Hare Airport or Midway after this season.

“Then I won’t have to see anyone in the airport and feel embarrassed or disappointed. I can get to Miami, where nobody really knows the White Sox. I will be embarrassed and I will be disappointed about seeing the people in the airport, seeing their faces, because we let them down.”

Miami really is the equivalent to the gulag or desert wasteland when it comes to sports. Maybe Ozzie was thinking of Cuba Jr. when he smashed pictures in his office after Friday’s loss. Carlos Quentin decided he wanted to smash too. Too bad he ended his season prematurely when he broke his wrist after “accidentally slamming his right wrist on the top of his bat after fouling off a pitch”.

Ozzie also discussed White Sox fans showing their displeasure on Friday and Saturday by booing the team.

“Sometimes when I hear those things I say, ‘I wish [I was] in Caracas (Venezuela) right now,’ because then my boys would be right behind [me]. But I don’t blame them.

Maybe he should bring his boys to Chicago. If anyone gives him shit in O’Hare or Midway, his boys could get all Chavista and beat that ass like James Joyce on a red-headed stepchild.**

**Do people even saying that anymore? What’s so bad about a red-headed stepchild? I could understand if it was that annoying red-headed kid from Diff’rent Strokes. Mr. Horton should have molested him instead of Dudley. I’m such a poser for mentioning Joyce on a sports blog. I’ll donkey punch myself to make up for it.

Yes, that’s right, you too can own a piece of NFL playoff history, immortalized in plastic, with McFarlane Toys LaDanian Tomlinson “sittin on tha bench scowling cause I cant play” action figure! Look at the detail in that scowl, the slight pout in the lips, he just wants to get in the game so bad, but that knee just won’t let him! Get yours today Chargers fans!

From Toys R Us via Kissing Suzy Kolber (saw they had this after we posted)

Saturday, the expected happened. The Patriots toppled the Jaguars in a hard fought (Joe Gibbs term) battle in Foxboro. Most everyone expected that their opponent in the conference championship game would be the Colts who should’ve had no problem with the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. Most everyone was wrong when the Chargers, who lost LT in the 2nd quarter and Phillip Rivers later in the game, snuck away with a win at Indy with some solid defense and huge contributions from back-up players.

Also on Saturday, the expected happened when the Green Bay Packers dismantled the Seattle Seahawks in classic Green Bay weather, a heavy snow and plenty of cold and wind. Most everyone expected that their opponent in the conference championship game would the the Dallas Cowboys who should’ve had no problem with the New York Giants on Sunday. TO was playing, it is a home game, no problem right? Wrong, Eli Manning (of all people) had a great game with no mistakes and the defense stepped up in the 2nd half, disrupting Tony Romo greatly, and allowing only a field goal for Dallas in the 3rd quarter. New York beats Dallas, Romo is 0-2 as a quarterback in the playoffs and T.O. cries after the game:

The unexpected should always be expected in the NFL. All Norv Turner haters, myself included, are scared to find out that a Norv Turner team made it to the conference championship. In addition to this development, most Eli Manning haters are frightened that he is in a conference championship game, especially with Tom Coughlin as his head coach. Tiki Barber must be crying in his dockers pants right now that he retired because his former team, and the next season they are a game away from the Super Bowl. All of this of course means there is a tear in the fabric of the universe somewhere and we are all certainly about to die. You should be afraid. Yes, Armageddon is upon us people but first, we have 1 more round of playoffs to go before the Super Bowl.

San Diego at New England and New York at Green Bay…this doesn’t leave much drama I don’t think. With weather being a huge factor, it has got to be Green Bay vs New England, dont you think? You know this guy wants to show the kid how its done.