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NFL's Road Race Is On

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 3, 2009

We cross the Rubicon today.

Today, my fellow citizens, we start down the road to Roman numerals, to XLIII, yet another Tampa Bay Super Bowl.

At the end of the road lies the next Marcus Allen or Jack Squirek or Whitney Houston or Scott Norwood or the next Ray Lewis. Now there's a group photo for you. Jack, put your arm around Whitney.

This is our tournament. The preliminaries have been concluded. When the dust settled last weekend, we had some surprising playoff no-shows, including Jon Gruden's Incredible Collapsing Bucs.

There will be no Cowboys preening for cameras, no Patriots studying double secret probation practice film.

Brett Favre and the Jets wrote a sorry storybook.

And some preseason hot picks are ice old. Try the Packers.

You don't even need tundra. Try the Jaguars.

We'd call what we're left with a mess, but it's going to be so wide open that mess might give way to fun even before the weekend is out.

How crazy is it?

The playoffs begin today with the Falcons at the Cardinals and the Colts at the Chargers. They continue tomorrow with the Ravens at the Dolphins and the Eagles at the Vikings. Oddsmakers have installed all the road teams as the favorites. Think about that. Think wide open.

In the AFC, I give no fewer than four teams a real shot at coming to Raymond James Stadium: the Titans, Steelers, Chargers and Colts.

Tonight's Indy-San Diego game would be a passable conference championship game in some seasons. Here it's just an appetizer.

These playoffs have two of the best stories going in sports - the 1-15 Dolphins turned all around into a contender, and the Falcons running with the big dogs without Michael Vick.

Did we mention that the Arizona Cardinals are hosting their first home playoff game since Truman was president? As in 1947, when the Cards called Chicago home? Apparently St. Louis was just a pit stop until the Rams could call it home.

By the way, America, the Falcons are coached by a man named Mike Smith and the Dolphins coach is named Tony Soprano, or something like that. Everyone will know their names if their teams make a run.

The AFC isn't as heavyweight heavy as the NFC, or so it seems. It will be hard for anyone to beat the Giants at Giants Stadium, unless it's Carolina for the NFC title.

There will be a lot of questions answered over the next few weeks.

Is Tennessee really that good?

Can league MVP Peyton Manning and the Colts stay hot?

Do rookie quarterbacks Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco get it done?

What magic do Donovan McNabb and Kurt Warner have left?

I like the Cardinals over the Falcons and the Dolphins over the Ravens.

And the Vikings over the Eagles and the Colts over the Chargers.

And the Titans over the Colts and the Steelers over the Dolphins.

And the Giants over the Cardinals and the Panthers over the Vikings.

And the Steelers over the Titans and the Panthers over the Giants.

Or maybe Colts over the Titans and Steelers and Giants over Panthers.

Then Peyton and baby brother Eli, wearing Johnny Unitas high-top shoes in one last tribute to those old Colts-Giants title games, square off on Dale Mabry to see who gets more Super Bowl rings.

Then again, the Titans could make a run.

Or the Steelers. Or the Panthers.

Or the Chargers. Or the Falcons.

So very many twists and turns.

The road ends here.

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