Conference Championships

OK, so instead of telling you who I think is going to win today, I'll tell you who I'm pulling for...and if you insist, you can put those down as my picks. I'm rooting for a Carolina/Pittsburgh Super Bowl at this point. It's not that I don't like Shaun Alexander or that I don't think Jake the Snake is fun and entertaining to watch. It's because of the following three reasons:

1. Carolina and Pittsburgh play physical, hard-nosed, toll-taking football. Remember the Bears/Panthers game last week? Same thing...people getting hurt all the time, injuries all over the place...just bruising, punishing action. In other words, a good old fashioned football game. It would be fitting that the signature colors for the two teams would be black (Steelers) and blue (Panthers).

2. While we're on the topic, a Panthers/Steelers SBXL would spare us all from what would probably the be most hideous uniform combination possible. The Broncos unis are just plain ugly. The color scheme is good, but the design is not. And if the Seahawks wear their all-green/blue outfit...yikes. I just don't want to see that.

3. When I'm out of teams I remotely like to pull for in the postseason, I default to the underdogs. If Carolina and Pittsburgh make it to Detroit, that would match up a five seed against a six seed. In other words, two out of the last three teams to make the playoffs could finish it. They would have both had to win three straight road games to do it, which has never been done before. But remember in October 2004, nobody had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a 7-game series to win before the Red Sox did it. You have to appreciate things like this if you're a sports fan.

Regardless of whether or not any of that comes true, I'll go ahead and tell you who I'm probably going to pull for the rest of the way...the team with the quarterback named "Big Ben". Yeah, we sticks together. :)