The National Football League's Conference Finals are here this Sunday.

It's the best American football wknd of the year. The four still-standing franchises slug it out for a slot in the Super Bowl. Awesome.

Oh sure, that whole Super Bowl thing is great too, what with its championship bestowing and all -- but the culmination of the playoffs leading up to the Super Bowl's spectacle seems somehow sweeter. Everything is heightened, and the promise of fulfilling dreams drives each team's every action.

Instead of weight of finality that soaks through each Super Bowl, Conference final games are about taking that next step, getting to the final stage.

Ahh, American football, your spectacle mercifully distracts from the intractable pain of the everyday.

* New Orleans vs. Chicago
Sunday, January 21, 2007. Noon, PST.
2007 Divisional Playoffs
The One-Sided Battle

At last check Chicago had a 90% chance of snow for Sunday.

Excellent.

All the better to set up this epic battle between the NFL's #1 offense against one of the league's very best defenses.

The New Orleans Saints have been proving everyone wrong all year long. Had their year been a screenplay it would have been thrown out for being too far-fetched.

Their powerful offense rides QB Drew Brees' just-operated-on arm, their no-name O-line has performed far beyond expectations, rookie Head Coach Sean Payton calls the plays, and the thunder-'n-lightening duo of Deuce and Reggie can pound the ball between the tackles or skitter outside.

It's a case of maximizing all opportunities, and utilizing all personnel to their utmost. Goodness sakes, they traded away their #2 receiver and had no drop off! Who what?

As for Da Bearss, their powerful Tampa Two D has lost a few of its most key components to injury -- the quick DT Tommie Harris and the ball-hawking SS Mike Brown -- but they've soldiered on, barely escaping the Seattle Seahawks in overtime last week.

Now, do they have enough stops left in them against the #1 offense?

That's a huge question, for when the Bears have the ball, hoo-boy, it's like the difference between varsity and frosh. The super up-and-down Bears offense has been one of the most unpredictable things in this unpredictable NFL season.

The key? QB Rex Grossman can suck terribly in one game, and then toss three TDs in the next game. There's no telling which one of him will show up. His aptitude is one of absolute confidence, an "I can make that throw" certainty. Well, sometimes he can, sometimes he can't, and the only sure thing is the increase in stress-related ailments that he's caused the windy city.

The Saints other side of the ball isn't all that good either. Can you name any of them? Thought so.

The strength of this not-so-strong defensive squad is dreadlocked former Pro Bowl CB Mike McKenzie, and their pair of formerly-underachieving defensive ends Will Smith and Charles Grant.

They've had the luxury of their offense scoring the hell out of the other team. That can change the whole disposition of a defensive gameplan when the team you're against has to play catch-up. Makes things a ton easier.

Bless his heart, but the weakest point on the Saints' D is their second starting cornerback Fred Thomas. With eleven years in the NFL under his belt, the poor guy has lost a lot of his speed to Father Time and he has been consistently beaten all year long by speedy receivers.

And that's what it will be like in this game: powerful offense against powerful defense, then a flawed offense against a flawed defense.

The only thing that could make this game more entertaining is snow.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.