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I kinda look at this as my week. Baseball is over and basketball is yet to really heat up. There is only one game that people want to talk about and it so happens that my buddy asked me to write on his page abut one of the teams playing in it. I have to perform this week. Every day. Every post. I have to be on. I have to stick my hat in there and move the pile. So every day this week, regardless of my softball games, the side jobs I am working on, and my total dedication to online shooters, you will get a post from the Paine. In all honesty, I am not as excited as the average fan. Maybe I have been sucked in by Tony Dungy's carefree attitude towards the regular season this year, perhaps it is Old Man Paine and his lessons about the football's war of attrition, perhaps it is my belief that any game that these two teams play doesn't count until the playoffs. Maybe its just Monday. The Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots are going to play football in what ESPN believes is the game that will explode the Universe in orgasmic bliss. Maybe I have football's version of whiskey dick. The first post for me will delve into the question that everybody wants God's answer to, Who is better, Manning or Brady?
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Its a question that really doesn't need an answer. These guys are both great, will both be remembered as two of the best if not the two best. How can a fella say one is better than the other? Both are great leaders with great work ethic. People love one guy because he is all clean cut and nice to kids and people love the other guy because he dates a super model and his baby momma is a super hot actress. But a long time ago I told jack Cobra that when it came to football, I wanted to write for substance, not for show, and I wanted to avoid this kind of comparison because it doesn't really matter to anyone. But Cobra was right about the Hoeppner article that broke me into the biz, and that sort of thing is farther away from what I want to talk about than this is.
Personally, I want to say that Manning is better. Yeah, its a homer pick, Manning is my guy under center, but it wouldn't be out of character to say that if I followed some other team because Manning is like a lot of guys I root for. He is un-athletic and slow, yet he works harder than anyone and overachieves. He is a tortured genius at the position, with no way to explain himself away from the field. He is like Patton. He is single-minded and driven. He knows every bit of history that pertains to his job and remembers every object lesson he has ever allowed football to show him. He makes football look like work, done well by a master , but work none the less. Brady is kinda a pretty boy. That said, Brady makes it look easy, and that is fascinating, too. I know Brady puts the work in, and his teammates talk about him the same way they do Manning. Brady has a Namath-like swagger that makes him look like Han Solo when he is walking away from Greedo's body. He is smooth and polished. Unflappable. Brady is like Sherman marching through Georgia. Both have a killer instinct about them. Brady has his grin, Peyton has the Aw Shucks.
So what about on the field? At the quarterback position the game starts with mechanics. Solid mechanics build every other component. Throwing a football is not the vaulting explosion that throwing a baseball is. For a football, it is more like throwing a javelin. Velocity is in the trunk of the body and its ability to jerk and upstretched arm downwards. You plant your back foot, push forward and roll through your hip. With the hip forward you are using you abdomen and trunk to pull your arm through the motion. It has to be fluid compact. Stepping too far into a throw will drop your hip too low on the plant leg and you will shoot the ball up and hang it. Even with good velocity you will "sail" a ball if you over-stride. I think the newest vocabulary term for this is "Pitching a Grossman". Stride is so overlooked in the league. People are in love with flashy guys and deep ball arms but if that arm isn't delivered mechanically and quickly it is worthless. It all begins with stride. The QB must be clean in his dropback and he must plant his back foot with authority and either step up or deliver with a short, shoulder-width stride at that moment with all the locomotion moving forward. The release point should be at the apex of the arm motion and follow through should bring the back foot to a 90 degree angle to the direction of the throw. The throwing arm should end up on his opposite thigh. If he follows through too far, like a baseball pitcher springing off the mound, he will drive the ball nose-down into the ground. Mechanically, I believe Manning is the superior mechanically speaking. He is the picture of muscle memory. It may appear that he has several different throws, like his tippy toe throw, but in reality they are all the same. The only difference is in how quickly he is trying to get to his release point and from how high above Saturday's head he needs to release it. He gets through his hips and to his release point faster and cleaner than anyone else and that gives him the mechanical edge. Not to say Brady isn't good mechanically, but he isn't as quick or as consistent. It is difficult to tell using only this year as an example since his offensive line has refused to allow anyone near him. He has all the time to make every throw look textbook. When under pressure in the past, though, he has a tendency to go all arm to speed up the release. manning, when under pressure, simply pushes faster through his whole delivery. Mechanical edge: Manning.
Mobility is not something you would credit either guy with, but both excel. Perhaps Favre s a more escapable guy for a pocket passer but Manning and Brady are great at it. One of Manning's calling cards is his happy feet in the pocket that slide him around and keep his shoulders square to the line of scrimmage. Brady's similar signature is the side-arm out route as I am sliding away from pressure. Neither is sacked often, but in the end, it is Brady who is more capable of using his legs. Mobility edge: Brady.
Not everybody is Dan Marino, but if we are going to compare two quarterbacks we have to talk about what kind of ball they throw. Marino threw the best, Manning's is one of the worst, and Brady is somewhere in the middle. At face value Brady throws the better ball. Brady throws a touch pass with good velocity and he has a "soft tail" which is when the nose of the ball follows the trajectory of the ball at all times and drops into the intersection between the route and the pass nose first. A ball with too much heat will come in nose up and be harder to catch. A ball underthrown is a pick six. So the best thing is a happy medium between velocity and touch with a tight spiral. That is what Brady throws. His best balls are the post routes, seam routes, and the middle out routes where that combination of touch and velocity meet with a premium of importance. His tight ends and slot receivers can attest to his abilities. His deep outs against the sideline are probably his weakest pass. He tends to sail them a bit, though Randy Moss has made it hard to see that. Manning throws a horrible ball. He throws more ducks than anybody. It isn't that he can't throw a good ball, he threw a PERFECT 59 yarder to Wayne on Sunday that hit him so PERFECTLY in stride that the pass was undefendable. But Manning also sends along those wobbly, gyrating ducks that seem to have mystical velocity. I don't know how he throws such a bad ball so fast. It doesn't seem to affect the catching for his receivers, though Clark is always looking for a reason to blow one. He throws the ducks when he is pushing harder to get through his delivery. He doesn't rotate his hand as completely on the hot throw under pressure and that is what causes that. Still, he probably loses a little distance because of the ball bleeding energy off through the gyrating. Manning's best throws are the quick slant and the deep comeback. A slant is not a glamorous throw, but he makes it look gutsy when he throws it on the goal line and it has everything to do with how fast you get the ball out. Peyton's deep comeback may be the most dangerous pass in the game today. No one, not even Brady, throws that comeback against the sideline as well as Manning. He throws it so that his receiver can catch it and drag two feet as he falls out and nobody else can touch it. A lot of third and eights are converted on that throw alone. It is lethal. Best Pass edge: Tom Brady.
Accuracy is a time when a guy can split hairs. Brady really hits his spot. So does Peyton. In the end, for all of those ducks that Manning throws they hit the spot too often for anyone to think he is anything but a surgeon. no one sees more zones than Manning and he puts a ball in windows designed specifically to confuse and stop him. On the Letterman Show, though, Brady was able to get one into the taxi's window and Manning wasn't... Accuracy edge: Manning.
Clutch play is hard to measure. Last second wins can be a yardstick but what if they were set up by a defensive stop or interception? If you were to ask me who is cooler under pressure I would say Brady, but if you were to ask me who was more creative I would say Manning. If i had to have one guy take the ball sixty yards to set up a field goal I would say Brady. He has the rings for it. But in last year's AFC Championship his receivers were choking, and he started pressing, and that was no time for that kind of foolishness. The Kelvin Hayden interception was devastating, it ended the game. If I had to have a guy go eighty yards and put one in the end zone, I would take Manning. He has all the tricks. In '04, '05, and '06 the Colts essentially won games by staying in it just long enough for Manning to get on the field one more time. That takes a particular kind of mental toughness to know that every week the game will probably come down to you with the clock ticking. It is tough to take a guy that makes a silly ass of himself like Peyton and believe in his toughness. In the end, go with the rings, until Peyton gets one more I am going with my lookalike. Clutch: Brady.
An under appreciated factor in the QB position is the ability to stay on the field. This is an easy one. Silly Ass gets it. Peyton just doesn't leave the field. He sat out the SECOND PLAY OF HIS CAREER due to injury Sunday when he was driven into the ground for a personal foul. Manning went to the sideline, took some smelling salts from the trainer, did his sniffing, he asked Tom Moore if he knew of a good dinner spot in Charlotte, and went back out on the field. He never sat down. The other play of his career that he has taken off for injury was when his jaw was broken. Toughness: Manning.
A guy could go back and forth like this forever and not come out with a clear winner. They both show little weakness, a healthy ego for the position, and a polish that is second to no one. We never figured out who was better before these guys came along. Marino? Montana? Elway? Unitas? We will never figure out which one of these guys is better.
Tomorrow I compare coaches. Come on back.
Funniest thing on TV: The Boondocks.
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Both are great, but when it's this close of a race....the ring is the thing, so I'm going with Brady.
He's shown that he can win championships with fewer weapons and now that he has the weapons, he's shown he can put up comparable numbers.
He signed a 'below market value' contract to help the Patriots field a better team, and even though management seemed to let him down last season, they seem to have made up for it this season.
He came into the league after battling Drew Henson, yep, at Michigan and wasn't expected to mount to much. He's worked extremely hard to become the success he is.
When I look at Brady I don't think 'pretty boy', I think 'John Wayne'.
Great breakdown and my opinion should not be seen as disrespect to Manning. It's like 1A and 1B
Is is like 1a and 1b. The guys can do the same things things on the field and in comparison often achieve the same results. From a coaching point of view, it isn't necessarily about who is better, but whether or not you get good quarterback play from a guy. Both give you that. In this league quarterback play is a t a premium, particularly with so many teams transitioning to younger guys. There is no substitute for results at the position, and rings are a perfectly legit reason to go with a guy. If you gave me either one and told me to start a team I wouldn't say boo. I do have to call Brady a Pretty Boy, though, when I was googling for the picture I found about 2 dozen glamour shots of him from various magazine. Manning has a busted up nose and mouth, ugly by comparison. And anybody who is compared to me in looks can't be all bad.
i don't think it's fair to throw out championship rings when comparing these two, especially since brady didn't really win three rings for his team, he just didn't lose them (not that it isn't important to not choke).
anyway, the most glaring difference between the two is responsibility. manning is probably the last QB we'll see that does what he does. some people find it annoying that he does his "chicken dance" before the snap, reading the defense and directing players, but i love it.
i also think that manning's perceived lack of athleticism is a myth. he's not going to outrun anyone, but he moves around well enough and has developed a nice pass on the run (even if it looks painful). plus, the guy is a big, strong ox. he's bloody huge.
i'll take manning, because i think that if you gave him brady's pats and gave brady manning's colts (up until last year) manning has three rings and brady doesn't. still brady's great, and i won't fault anyone for thinking he's better.
the NFL is the only league with a legit "who's better?" argument going between two top players.
I give the edge to Manning. I think the innovation of offense with the Colts gives him the edge which he is a major factor of that innovation. I don’t exactly buy into the “rings” theory as Grifter pointed out. NE clearly won their first SB b/c of their defense. Yes, Brady did his job at the end of the game but their defense put a hurting on St. Louis. I think the same can be said for the Philly SB game as well. Their defense was key in confusing McNabb. But, the Philly game is more arguable. You need a complete team to win a SB not just a great QB.
I look at the “Manning has all the weapons theory” a bit differently than others. The main reason he has those weapons is because he has been instrumental in developing those weapons. It’s not as if Harrison and Wayne were of Calvin Johnson or Randy Moss stature. They weren’t exactly the pick of the litter in their respective drafts even though they are 1st rounders. They were a great fit for the Colts. I will say they are of better stature then say a David Patton that Brady has worked with in the past. Clearly neither would be where they are today if they were drafted by say the Chiefs. I think Brady would have benefited more with some stability in the WR area.
Let’s end with this. Neither would be where they are without some help on the offensive line.
Good Job to Paine for the analysis.
Hold on a second here fellas. I don't think you really noticed what Brady has done in the Super Bowl's...so let me help you out.
71-105 (68%), 735 yards (245 per game), 6 td's and 0 int's (3 games)
as for Manning...25-38, 247, 1 and 1. (1 game)
I'd say Brady had a lot to do with his teams winning the Super Bowl..and getting there through the playoffs. (2:1 TD/INT ratio in the playoffs - 14 games) (Manning has a 1.2:1 ratio in the playoffs - 13 games)
yes, in the first SB he was more of a 'grind it out to get the win' QB, but the other two he's really excelled in.
Before Brady got Moss this year his best receiver ever was...Troy Brown. Troy. Brown....or maybe Ben Coates.
I have a feeling this site might explode next week if the Pats take out Jesus, I mean Manning...
I actually just wish they would play the game and get it over with. I'm pretty much sick of hearing about it for the past few weeks. From a team standpoint, a loss would mean a negative notch in the homefield advantage race. From a personal standpoint, a loss would not send me over the edge. I'm not going to go off on this site and will probably be ready to watch the Colts-Chargers game come Monday. Let's put it this way, I was much more pumped to see the playoff game between the 2 teams last January than I am now to watch this regular season game.
I think that they are both great players...I would take either one on my team, and not complain one bit. I of course like Peyton because he is a Colt and I'm a Colts fan...I think Brady is about as calm and cool as anyone is in the pocket...the guy never sweats, he never waivers or worries...however, I also think that there have been numerous times this season in which Brady has thrown very bad balls and his receivers have bailed him out. I think on several occasions that he just throws the ball up there, and Moss somehow comes down with it...Peyton rarely does this, his passing is much more precise and with purpose.
My initial point was that it wasn't all Brady that won those SB's and that is what is shoved down everyone's throat. Granted he had some pretty good stats. The Carolina game was no doubt Brady at his best. Now we agree on the Rams game. The Philly game had NE's defense creating 4 TO's. Thus their defense being primarily responsible for a major portion of winning those games doesn't allow me to buy into the "rings" theory. I will say that the Colts win was no doubt 100% Manning. Their defense as well had a major part in that win.
I will say that the Colts win was no doubt 100% Manning.
Dominic Rhodes, Joseph Addai, their 190 comined rushing yards, the four forced fumbles the defense forced and 2 INT's out of the Colts defensive backfield beg to differ. Colts had only two offensive TD's that game....both in the first half.
i'm pretty sure the offense scored in the second half. didn't addai score the winning TD in that game?
here's a question or three:
if the colts win, do the pats keep tearing up every other team with reckless abandon, or does it not matter, anymore?
if the pats blow away the colts, are they satisfied, and let up a little (just a little...)?
and if you're a coach and the pats are running it up on you, why not send an all out blitz against the spread offense and just keep knocking brady on his ass, penalties be damned? i mean, you're gonna lose, anyway. i'd do it.
two field goals and one INT return for a touchdown in the second half. that's how the colts scored.....no offensive td's, not that they needed to with the way their D, and Chicago's O, was playing.
As for your questions. If the Colts win....the Pats become a joke. It would be a total embarrassment to them, I think.
If the Pats win, I think they continue to pound every team into submission for the rest of the season.
If the Pats were blowing me out and running up the score they'd have a hard time having enough fuel in the tank of that injured player cart they like to run out on the field....
JC - Same situation occurred with NE in past SB's. It was a team win for Indy and NE in the past. That is why in my opinion it is New England Patriots with 3 SB's and Indianapolis Colts with 1 SB. Not Brady 3 and Manning 1. That is why I don't like the idea of comparing based on rings because winning a SB takes a full team to win.
I think you don't want to compare SB rings because your guy only has 1 of them...and didn't have any until last season. It's the same argument most Colts fans made before last season...i've heard it all.
That line of reasoning would be like me saying that Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon were nearly the same player....if you take away the NBA Titles. You can't take away the titles and the fact that the leader of the team lead his team to the title. That's a huge part, if not the biggest, of the game and right now Brady is ahead in that category.
Do they play the game for titles or for stats? I'm thinking titles.
Who are the greatest players in each of the major U.S. sports (Russell, Jordan, Montana, Rice, Ruth, etc.)? Who are the greatest coaches (Wooden, Knight, Dean Smith, Torre, etc.)? Almost all of them have rings. The legacy of a player is largely based on the number of championships he has won...thats just how it is.
i misunderstood which game you meant, jack. i thought you were referring to the AFC championship game.
i think the championship theory works differently based on the sport. you can be the best baseball player in history, and all of your HR's, K's, gold gloves, etc. won't help a crappy team. it's just different. in the NBA, it definitely counts. more than any other sport, a great player can make his teammates better.
it's hard to do that in football, because ultimately, even if you make EVERY other player on the field with you 100% better... that's still only half the team. you can't play offense and defense.
now, if you're a coach, rings are pretty much the only things that count at the end of the day.
Jack, most of the time I agree with you, and if not agree I at least understand...how can you say that if the pats lose it will be a "total embarassment?" The colts are; 1. Defending champs, 2. undefeated. And undefeated against a tougher schedule....
Completely agree with Grifter's last statement. I've always thought against awarding Brady absolute greatness based on his SB rings but have always had to resign to the fact that NE was just clearly better than my Colts. I'll admit that their team was just plain better than mine a few years back and could be better today. I just view football as more of a TEAM sport. There are way too many variables that get out there on the field during a game to individualize the success of a team.
I didn't mean that losing to the Colts would make it a total embarrassment because the Colts were a bad team or something like that. I meant that with the way the Pats are running through the NFL and running up the score, to lose the only game that has true meaning to them so far this season would be embarrassing. It would make all they did earlier this season seem pointless, at least to me...if I were on that team I'd be embarrassed....
I find it hard to believe that you are going to discount Super Bowl rings. That's just ludicrous to me and I'm not going to agree with it.
Who do you want? Montana or Marino? Championships count.
of course they count. i don't anyone is saying they don't (at least, i'm not). i just think that a QB's effect is sometimes overblown.
montana has more rings than marino, but so do trent dilfer and jeff hostetler.
for the record, i'd take montana. i'm a niner whore.
And here comes my entire point...While Montana and Marino are similar, the ability of Montana to win puts him in front of Marino...because they are so similar, that is the deciding factor.
When you compare Marino to Hostettler, Dilfer, Doug Williams, etc....of course you take Marino, those aren't even close to being similar QB's.
Brady and Manning are so close that you are to go to the number of rings they have, or at least I do....I have no problem with you guys thinking Manning is better though. I mean he has great stats, has won, etc....it's just that if I were building a team, Brady would be the QB for me.
Lets put some things to rest. When a guy talks about a "team win" it is moot. The responsibility a Qb will have in a "team win" is still so freaking astronomical that he has to be something of a hero. In the NE championship games the Brady was not always playing a stiff defense, but he won two with tremendous pressure on himself. He had to march his team into field goal position with seconds to spare. he did it beautifully.
How important was Manning to the 190 combined rushing yards Rhodes and Addai had in the SB? He was maybe the most important guy in the whole play. Watch the tape and see how many of those plays were called at scrimmage AFTER Manning read the defense. Addai was a green rook, who was not perfectly situated to the offense. he was used more like a hammers than a rapier. They just sent him into the breach. But those breaches were broken by Manning and Saturday reading the Chicago defense, and to some extent, outsmarting Urlacher and Briggs at the line of scrimmage. You can say that they won it on the ground, but you can't say Peyton didn't win it. Those rushing yards had more to do with Manning than the handoff, he won it the only way he could when they took away his arm, he won it with his head.
The reason big games like super bowls count for quarterbacks is because the responsibility they have is magnified, and all leaders must perform and understand that power and responsibility are blah blah blah. But big games come and go, can anyone say that the Super Bowl was a bigger game than last year's AFC Championship game? It wasn't. The two best teams played for the championship in Indy last year. THAT game was as big as they come. That was real. That was for a trophy, this undefeated mid-season crap is nothing in comparison. In that game manning had one of the greatest big balls games ever.
And as far as athletics go. Manning is NOT great. He is big, and he was a solid three sport athlete in high school (football, basketball, baseball in that order), but he is not athletic. He does not have great body control or agility. He is stiff in his hips and has no natural locomotion when he runs. He is big, stout, and has guts, but that don't win track meets. he throws well on the run because he prepares endlessly for it and practices his throwing-on-the-run mechanics like Buck Rampage drinks, endlessly. He gets the absolute maximum ability out of his body through EFFORT and DESIRE and not athletics. That is why he is a God to me. He makes me believe that any yokel, even a slow ass white guy like me, can do something brilliant every once in a while.
Yeah...so who's better, yo?
Also, Manning is a professional athlete. A world class athlete. While he may not seem athletic when being compared to Randall Cunningham, you put him on your local YMCA basketball court or your local softball diamond and he will be the best player out there...and it wouldn't even be close.
My uncle was a pitcher and a relief pitcher at that. You know, those guys who sit around for 6,7, and 8 innings. When he came home over the Winter we would play ball and the guy, the one who was built like a bull, could outperform everyone.
That's just how world class athletes are. They are just better.
Bruce...my point was that Manning didn't help win that Super Bowl anymore than Brady didn't help win his....they both lead their teams, in my opinion.
I think that the two best teams never played last season in the playoffs (chargers, colts) but the Colts/Bears match-up was a match-up of two teams that were better than the Colts/Pats. You have to admit that the Pats fielded one of their weaker teams last season as their offense was pieced together and held together by duct tape in the skill positions.
Don't answer that...seriously.
bruce, i think it depends on the QB. on average, the QB probably feels more pressure than any other position player in sports (except maybe a closer... or a goalie). but not every QB. you'll never convince me that trent dilfer felt the same pressure a brady or manning did because everyone knew that team was about ray ray and the defense. there's a big difference between "win this game for me" and "don't lose this game for me."
and sunday's game is pretty meaningful if it ultimately determines who has home field when these two inevitably meet again in the playoffs.
Let me paint this picture for you all.
The scene takes place at Dave and Busters in Atlanta, Georgia. The day, NFC and AFC Championship Sunday.
Being sent off for some meaningless Air Force training, a group of young men have the weekend off to do some sight-seeing. No, no. Not on this day. It is too important.
A group of 11 guys watching both games that day. 9 of the guys were Bears fans, they got their treat. The other 2 were left waiting for later in the afternoon. I had my Reggie Wayne jersey on. I had to bring it with me for good luck, because I knew there was a possibility of missing the Super Bowl. Quickly, the Colts are down and a random stranger feels like he should kick me while I'm down. "You're a bit quiet over there Reggie Wayne"
That burned me up. Probably the most I've been pissed off by a complete stranger...EVER. My reply was, "We will see who is quiet at the end of the game" His group got a nice little chuckle out of that, because they weren't believers, they didn't know.
Let me fast forward....Tom Brady, Captain Comeback, marches onto the field to lead the Pats down the field to win the game. More trash talk being thrown towards my way. Didn't matter, the Colts were winning now and I knew that they would hold on. Brady drops back, throws across the middle, INTERCEPTION!!!
"Who's quiet now????"
In the words of that guy on the NFL Network commercial trying to say TJ Housh's name...CHAMPIONSHIP!!
Dude, good story and it was quite a comeback but the Pats have three 'ships, the Colts...and the city of Indianapolis....only one.
But we have the one that counts...the last one!!
Nice JC...dogging Indy as a city for only having won one championship overall. Kind of hard to rack up too many with only 2 professional teams, but I'll give it to ya. At the same time, this comes from a guy who lives and breathes for a team that wasn't won a championship in 100 years. (Yes, I know the Cowboys and Bulls have more championships than I have fingers and maybe even toes, but I had to squeeze that one in there).
As for the whole "how important is the QB in the Super Bowl?" question, I will provide a few names: Brett Favre, John Elway, Jim Kelly. Favre and Elway led their teams, and I mean LED their teams to Super Bowl championships whereas guys like Jim Kelly just never figured out how to get it done. I realize Elway lost twice in the 80's, but he was pretty young at the time. And remember who Favre beat? Ohhhh, those good 'ole New England Patriots with Drew Bledsoe at the helm. Drew was Peyton Manning before there was a Peyton Manning (in the NFL), a guy who put up big numbers but couldn't get it done. Well Peyton finally figured it out, with the help of a good defense that could stop someone, which is always important if you want to win. Have to have both guys, even the great QBs can't win without some semblance of a defense. Every once in awhile a Trent Dilfer or Brad Johnson will show up in the big game and "manage" the offense well enough for a win. But for the most part, it takes a good QB that can make plays alongside a decent defense that can keep the opponents out of the endzone. I'll take Manning, because I'm a Colts fan. But I'm not going to piss on Brady's shoes, because he is one hell of a QB in his own right. If you want to rank their place in history based on rings, that is perfectly fine. They both have plenty of time left to adjust those numbers some more. Maybe Brady gets 6 and Peyton never gets another, or perhaps they both finish with 3 or 4. That is why it is great to be a football fan right now. We're watching 2 of the best EVER playing in the league at the same time. The only thing that could make it better would be if they were in different conferences so they could (hopefully) face -off in the Super Bowl year after year. We'll likely have to settle for AFC Championships until they retire though, as I don't see either retiring anytime soon...but at least they'll have that team from Texas with T.O. to shoot it out with in the big game (as long as Jerry Jones keeps building his team within the framework that Polian and Belichick built their teams).