Kenneth Sothman, Bears Superfan

(Note: This is going to be cut into two parts, with the top half being about the NFC Championship while the bottom half will be more AFC Championship oriented...)

Quite frankly, this is the single most important football weekend of my life. Never before in my twenty years has both the AFC and NFC held such intriuging match-ups, and that's without putting in the equation that MY CHICAGO BEARS ARE ONE WIN AWAY FROM GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL.

That reality hasn't quite set in on me yet. Maybe I've been too busy with school to attempt to even take a step back and soak this in, but when I did get a few glaring minutes, I felt as if my heart was going to burst.

Following Sunday's victory (which I'll get to later on), there was already a column on ESPN.COM from Gene Wojciechowski that "the Bears were the most vulnerable team" left out of the four." Then as the week has gone by, everybody in the media has played the Cinderella card with the Saints, except they thoroughly believe the Saints are that much better then the Bears. And if you don't believe me, check ESPN once again after you look at Gene's article, for every expert that is a human being picked the Saints to win.

The fact that the Saints are this much of an overwhelming pick the whole week completely baffles my mind. Consider this:

- The Bears may have only beaten the Seahawks, but does anybody else realize that the Saints barely squeaked by the Eagles at home? Did anybody really feel intimidated by the Eagles? Here was an awful team from the NFC that only made the playoffs because they got hot against a string of under-achieving teams, squeaked by during the first round, and then were one completely awful offensive penalty away from pushing the Saints to overtime at home. And since the Saints beat them, they're the favorites? Would the Eagles be the favorites if they won?

- The Saints, a warm weather team, are going to play an away game against the number one team in the conference in weather that will be 30 degrees at the warmest. For what reason should any of us believe that the Saints offense is going to run them off the field in such awful weather? So far, the Saints are 1-2 while playing in cold weather, and that one win came at the end of the season when the Giants were unraveling. Are there any stats to back this notion up?

- The Saints don't have a single impressive win on their schedule! I'm serious! Besides the fact they beat they absolutely crushed the Cowboys when Dallas was also ultimately unraveling, they beat a bunch of really bad teams.

- New Orleans has trouble stopping the run, plain and simple. I'm kinda confused why this hasn't been talked about more, because both Jones and Benson are just as good/if not better then Brian Westbrook.

Honestly, this is one of those games where it's all said and done, everyone outside of Chicago is going to question themselves and ask "Why didn't I see this coming all along?". Sometimes, common sense should just kick in.

Onto some more Bears stuff:

- I wish I knew what it felt like to be in the Chicago area right now seeing everyone walking around in Bears paraphanelia. Honestly, besides ESPN ultimately giving the Bears no chance at all, (Do you guys understand why it's been so sad for me this week? There's not a single media outlet I have access to that is pro-Bears)everything is completely Colts. So in these final two days, soak everything in as much as you can, and remember us Bears fans across the country don't get that luxury.

- Truthfully, I'm wondering what Chicago Bears team Sue has been watching all season long. After the loss the the Dolphins, this team hasn't quite specifically put together a very good overall game since. But who cares? Winning ugly is exactly what distinguishes a championship team from every other team in the league: the ability to win games when not playing at 100%.

This is especially known in the Chicago area, for the 2005 White Sox is the closest resemblence to this football team then any other cross-sports team I can think of. And all the other teams that don't get the breaks, well, we'll just call them the Cubs.

But seriously, every team that wins a championship in every sport has those games where they just slip by. And it's suppose to be like this, it's the playoffs! The best teams are playing the best teams, of course the game was going to be close, a team's season is on the line.

- Did I ever mention my "24" theory on here before? If not I'm gonna kick myself in the pants, since it was the total points the Seahawks scored last week and may seem I just made it up. But I've always believed the magic number for the Bears was 24, for no opponent will score more then 24 points against them, and all they need to do is at least match that number to win. Well, even if I hadn't mentioned this before, I see no reason why it won't be in effect this weekend.

- Rex Grossman is officially one win away from making me look like a genius all along.

- Final prediction comes tomorrow or Sunday morning. Until then, long live Lovie-Ball!

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As I had mentioned before, the past week of mine has been filled ulitmately non-stop Colts coverage. Since I live about 40 minutes away, and I have watched more Colts football then any other team this season, I feel I must weigh in on this game.

On one side, you have the "Great" Peyton Manning, who's played awful this playoffs. There's not a single thing a Colts fan, a non-Colts fan, a football expert, or anybody could say to disprove this fact. Look at his line: one touchdown, five interceptions, and 438 yards. Realistically from dropped passes, there should be about an extra three interceptions on that line.

Yet the Colts have managed to win both of their games. So I will give credit where credit is due: The Colts took advantage of extremely poor coaching from both the Chiefs and Ravens. It's as easy as that. If Edwards and Billick don't hand Dungy wins on a silver platter, and I'm quite skeptical the timing of this taking place while EVEN MORE Manning commercials are being produced, the Colts aren't at this point. Honestly, the Colts have had much better teams then the one they are fielding this year.

And just to note, even if the Colts do make the Super Bowl on Sunday, unless Peyton wins a SuperBowl it doesn't matter.

Then on the other side you have Tom Brady and the Patriots. What more could be said about Brady? Sure the media has basically come together to make Peyton Manning look like a super-hero no matter how poorly he has played, but why hasn't more been made of Brady's season?

The Patriots freely let go Brady's best receiver in Branch and the best kicker in the game in Vinataeri all over a few million dollars. This may look bad, but in the Patriots situation, it shouldn't have mattered. TOM BRADY TOOK A SMALLER CONTRACT FOR THESE SPECIFIC SITUATIONS TO KEEP HIS TEAM TOGETHER AND TO CONTINUE TO BUILD WINNING TEAMS. Three Super Bowl championships, and this guy absolutely shows all he cares about is his team. Yet in a time when the media complains about selfish players who only care about themselves and the almighty dollar, you have quite possibly the second-coming of Joe Montanta giving up money.

Yet the Patriots just let these two important pieces of their championship puzzles slip away.

Now Brady has taken a completely inept receiving core to the AFC Championship, quite possibly his greatest feat yet (despite his last poor game), yet all the talk is about how great Manning is? Where is the logic in this?

I can face the truth. The Colts have a much better team then the Patriots on paper. This is an under-manned Patriots team, and as Bill Simmons put, "It's the best team in a re-building stage in the history of sports." There's absolutely no way the Colts should lose, especially with the Patriots pass defense in such ill-shape.

So this is what I'm going to say: the Colts will win. But under no circumstance should any Colts fans act as if this puts Manning on the same playing field of Brady, or changes anything from the past. It's just one win, and if the Colts lose in the Superbowl, then quite frankly this win doesn't matter anyways, and Peyton will still be ring-less.

And yes, this was a short mini-vent, for I truly dislike the Colts and everything they're about. I find it unbelievable that the NFL has put so much stock into this team, but quite frankly this has only happened because the Colts have the smallest fan base of any good team in the NFL.

Let's face it, the Colts aren't even the overwhelming favorite team in their own state. Northern Indiana is full of Bears fans while the south-east is where the Bengals fans start pouring in. Throw in the fact that Indy is somewhere between only the 20th-25th top market in the country, and this idea I've thrown out isn't too far-fetched.

So on Sunday night I'll be at a restaurant called "Scotty's Brewhouse" with a big group of friends, all of us anti-Colts fans. To give an example how excited I am, just for this Sunday I've purchased a Patriots robe and bucket hat. And if you think this is bad, just think if we get a Colts/Bears Super Bowl...

But when it's all said and done, I can't wait until I can say Rex Grossman owns more rings then Peyton Manning.