There's not much baseball to talk about in January until your team gets desperate and trades for Sammy Sosa, so let's talk some football playoffs.
As most of you know, I am a Lions fan, and they're not even close to being involved in the playoffs, so I've got no biases. And I know a lot of you are Skins fans so you will have some.
I like the playoffs this year because every team in is actually good. No 9-7 or 8-8 schlubs. All the wildcard matchups are intriguing because I think you can make a solid case on either side for every game. Lots of teams really stunk this year. The teams picking 1-12 or so in the 2006 draft were all bad enough that a couple of breaks one way could've had them drafting first overall.
I think for the wild card games I'm taking Tampa Bay at home because the Skins have got to be worn the hell out at this point. I'll take the Panthers over NY. In the AFC, I'll go with Jacksonville to dismantle New England finally, and the Bengals in the mild upset over Pittsburgh because they're going to go for broke offensively and the Steelers won't be able to keep up.
Bucs 21, Skins 17
Panthers 34, Giants 24
Jaguars 17, Patriots 7
Bengals 37, Steelers 28
And to make my Super Bowl pick right now and stand by it (though I'm not that comfortable with it), I'm going with Jags/Seahawks. No one else is picking the Jags, but I really like their team. It's a terrible pick, but sometimes I make those terrible picks and they turn out right, and you look good when they do.