The Zong

The Final Four of Football is here! The Saints carry the “Team of Destiny” label with them into the NFC Championship game, while the Indianapolis Colts kill live chickens in their locker room hoping to break the Patriot Voodoo what felled them so many times before.

New Orleans @ Chicago
These two teams played some exhausting, exciting football last week. We learned that Rex Grossman doesn’t need to be all that good for Chicago to win, and that New Orleans’ magic was enough to trump the artificial intelligence of Jeff Garcia. Now, head to head, on not-so-balmy Soldier Field, we’ll see if G-Rex will sink his team like everyone is afraid he will, or if the Bears, since opening week a favorite to get to the Super Bowl, will make good on all that fried, cheese-covered promise. Reggie Bush and Deuce McCallister have gotten better (and healthier) as a running back tandem all season. This is where they’ll earn their keep, trying to wear down one of the best defenses in football up front and keeping them honest for when Drew Brees passes the ball.

The Bears, on the other hand, are just waiting for Rex Grossman to prove that he’s the quarterback of the future, and this game will be a pretty good barometer. I don’t think he is, and I think that he’ll fumble, throw or otherwise choke the game away in the 4th quarter. It’ll be a good game to watch, but in the end we’ll be stuck with two more weeks of the sports media talking about what football means to victims of Hurricane Katrina. (Saints 24 - Bears 23)

New England @ Indianapolis
Here we go again. Some asshole decided to favor the Colts in this game, thus allowing the Patriots to use the Rodney Dangerfield Doctrine to charge themselves up before the game. I’m pretty tired of hearing the “No respect” card being played by guys who make millions of dollars to play football, but what I think doesn’t matter. The fact is, Peyton Manning and the Colts pretty much have to respect the Pats for obvious reasons. We’ve seen Manning do some remarkable things during his career, and few can deny that he’s an incredible talent, but picking him over Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in the postseason, even at Indy, is something I’m not willing to do. Ever.

Manning has led better teams than this, and he has played better himself, (He’s thrown 5 interceptions and only one touchdown in these playoffs) and now, unless Adam Vinatieri can start kicking touchdowns, it looks as though the song remains the same. (Pats 31 - Colts 27)

- M.G.