Peyton Manning vs. Drew Brees in Super Bowl XLIV? The fresh-faced
New Orleans Saints making their first Super Bowl trip against the
high-octane Indianapolis Colts? Yeah, we can live with that.

I figured Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings would have been
interesting instead, but after four hours of Joe Buck fawning over
Favre Sunday on the FOX broadcast, maybe it’s best to find a fresh
storyline.

The Saints against the Colts in a potential offensive shootout in
Miami in two weeks figures to be a classic. And it’s possible now for
Favre to actually retire in peace if he so chooses, given that Deanna
Favre has finally broken the NFL record for “anxious wife in the
stands” shots previously held by Brenda Warner.

Indy is the early four-point favorite on the betting line.

The NFC game wasn’t particularly well played, but it was certainly
entertaining. A soaring fourth-and-inches dive by Pierre Thomas with a
great tackle by Chad Greenway in overtime was as good as it gets,
leading to the Saints’ winning field goal in a 31-28 victory.

Favre and his Vikings cost themselves a Super Bowl trip with five
turnovers. And an inexplicable 12-men-in-the-huddle penalty in the
closing seconds of regulation pushed Minnesota out of possible
game-winning field goal range and set up a Favre interception that
wiped out what appeared a golden opportunity.

For Seahawks’ fans looking for a little karma, yes, that was Steve
Hutchinson who called “heads” and lost the overtime coin flip for the
Vikings.

Minnesota thus never got the ball in overtime, with Brees moving the
Saints into position for Garrett Hartley’s winning 40-yard field goal
and setting off a party royale on Bourbon Street.

In the AFC championship game, Peyton Manning did his thing to perfection in the Indianapolis Colts’ 30-17 victory over the New York Jets.

I was impressed with the way the Jets played early. That is an
excellent defense and Rex Ryan made the most of his more-limited
offensive weapons to put his team in the lead at halftime.

Rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez played extremely well, helped by the
fact his team led early and could keep the Colts’ off-balance a little
bit. But once the tide turned in the second half and Sanchez was forced
to throw more often, the writing was on the wall.

The impressive thing about Manning is the guy can throw for nearly
400 yards even when opposing defenses know he’s going to be winging it.
Sanchez has succeeded this season because opponents load up to stop the
Jets’ run game.

He does look like a QB who has a chance to be pretty darn good down
the road, but obviously the difference Sunday was Manning, whose only
mistake all day was trying the third-down quarterback sneak at the
goal-line in the first half.

Which means we’re now going to be subject to two straight weeks of
Manning commercials, Manning stories, Manning sound bites and Manning
analysis.

Which is all, of course, better than Favre commercials, stories, sound bites and analysis.

On the subject of overkill, does every conversation during these
championship games have to center around American Idol on FOX or
Survivors on CBS?

It reached an all-time low when Favre was shown singing “Pants on
the Ground” from American Idol during a post-game celebration, leading
to the FOX analysts then mention American Idol several dozen more times.

And can any National Anthem singer be a non-Idol person any more?
What are the odds of Clay Aiken singing the anthem at the Super Bowl?
Or William Hung?

While I’m wondering, didn’t that seem a little odd to see Edgerrin
James up on stage helping the Colts accept their AFC Championship
trophy?

Oh well. The Saints and Colts should be a thriller. And as long as the football is good, I guess we’ll deal with the rest of it.