Snow way

The long-awaited, not-really-anticipated Vikings-Eagles game finally will be played tonight at Lincoln Financial Field. The game was postponed from Sunday because of forecasted heavy snow. The decision to move the game has been met with some criticism.

Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell went off on a bit of a rant on a Philly radio station on Monday.

“My biggest beef is that this is part of what’s happened in this country,” Rendell said on the air. “I think we’ve become wussies.”

Normally, I don’t approve of politics and sports intermingling, but in this case, Governor Ed is absolutely right. Postponing football because of snow is ridiculous. Snow has provided NFL fans with some pretty memorable moments and games (Ice Bowl, Tuck Rule, Leon Lett bungling a blocked kick at the Cowboys’ old stadium).

Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe had a good point, too, when he said there’s no way snow would postpone a game in the Midwest. Imagine if the Packers or Bears did this. They’d be the laughingstock of the league.

Although perhaps the Bears should have tried to postpone their game against the Patriots a couple weeks ago.

Second-guessing the NFL playoffs

At this point in the football season, all any fan can ask for is a shot at the playoffs. Truth be told, I had assumed, when the season began, that the Green Bay Packers would have a playoff spot wrapped up by now — if not the NFC North title and a first-round bye. But things seldom work out the way we think they will in the NFL (as evidenced by the preseason predictions Scott and I made ndnsports.blogspot.com/2010/09/nfl-prognostications.html).

One of the beautiful things about the NFL playoffs, though, is that it doesn’t matter how you get in. It just matters that you’re in. Since 2000, three wild card teams have won the Super Bowl (2000 Ravens, 2005 Steelers and, sorry, Patriots fans, the 2007 Giants).

So while this season hasn’t lived up to my August optimism, my Super Bowl picks of Ravens-Packers still is alive. That’s more than I can say for Scott’s pick of Ravens-Cowboys.

Green Bay’s playoff picture is pretty simple. A win at Lambeau Field on Sunday against the Bears and they secure a wild card. And I like my team’s chances against the Eagles, Bears or Rams in the first round of the playoffs.

As for the AFC, the Patriots officially ascended to the throne of “team to beat” with their win over the Bills. Now any team in the conference with Super Bowl aspirations will have to win in Foxboro, which is no easy task when Tom Brady is in uniform. The AFC, though, is much stronger and deeper than the NFC, so even home games against the likes of the Jets, Steelers and Ravens are no lock. Even the injury-riddled Colts and upstart Chiefs are no walk in the park.

Sticking to my preseason Super Bowl prediction, here are my revised playoff guesses:

AFC wild card: Chiefs over Jets, Ravens over Colts
AFC divisional: Ravens over Patriots, Steelers over Chiefs
AFC championship: Ravens over Steelers

NFC Wild card: Packers over Bears, Saints over Rams
NFC Divisional: Packers over Falcons, Saints over Eagles
NFC championship: Packers over Saints

Super Bowl XLV: Ravens over Packers