Any Given Sunday

This weekend, there were great football games played by the best teams. In NCAA parlance, you could say "The Great Eight". And when it was all done, "The Final Four" was settled.

I am not going to report on the games themselves, other than to say they were hard-fought battles of brute strength, sheer will, strategy, and finally, the desire to win. In other words, field chess.

The NFC outcome will have a top seed, the Seattle Seahawks, play last year's NFC champion, the San Francisco 49ers, for the right to play the AFC champion in the Super Bowl. Both teams deserve to be here because the Seahawks are their conference's best team and the 49ers had to get past two tough opponents, Green Bay and Carolina, in those teams' home fields. That is a tough prospect.

The AFC outcome is a "dream game" because the two best quarterbacks of our time, and two of the best ever to play the game, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, will be playing this Sunday afternoon. This will be at the fifteenth time these men have faced each other in their careers, the fourth time in the playoffs and the third time in the AFC championship game. They have each won a championship game and this will be the "rubber match".

Not to downplay the NFC game, but I am more familiar with the teams in the AFC, since I am a long-suffering New York Jets fan since 1962, and since last century it seems, both these QBs have been a nemesis to my heroes. But understand this: I am also a football fan and I appreciate greatness in the game.

Sadly, because both these guys play in the same conference, they can't play in the Super Bowl, the crown jewel of football. And this year, that game is HERE, in the greatest city in the world.

But that's ok. To them, their big game will be in Denver, with almost as many TV viewers as the Super Bowl on February 2. And I think this will be a great game. Why? Because as I have said to one of my Twitter followers, a huge Patriots fan, these guys are number 1 and 1A, week after week, year after year. Just flip them; it doesn't matter.

And as that Jet/football fan, this will be a great game to watch and I will be happy with the result no matter who wins. After all, the team who goes to the Super Bowl will be going with the number 1 QB in the game.

And this game will be the one that makes the following a true statement: Any Given Sunday. Enjoy the game!