Game (face) time

Earlier this week, a member of the Philadelphia Eagles' secondary said that, in his opinion, today and tomorrow are the best weekend of the year in terms of pro football; he added that if he weren't playing, he'd be glued to the TV every single minute of each of the four games scheduled.

Hey, here's a riddle:

Q. Why is joe like a member of the Philadelphia Eagles secondary?

A. He'll be glued to the TV every single minute of each of the four games.

The all-or-nothing, winner-take-all nature of the playoffs at this stage; the fact that the winner competes next week for the conference championship and a berth in the Super Bowl, while the loser goes home and stews and steams about what went wrong for what must be an endless seven months until training camp begins, that's what I love most.

Besides, of course, the great teams and players strutting their stuff on a huge, pressure-packed stage.

It can't get any better than this.

So, nota bene: today's first game, the New York Jets at the heavily-favored Pittsburgh Steelers, starts at 4:30 p.m. Eastern on CBS.

Then at 8 on Fox, it's the St. Louis Rams' aerial circus against the sensational Michael Vick and the Atlanta Falcons.

Better bring a calculator for this one, 'cause the scoreboard's gonna be smoking.

Then my beauty rest, to prepare for:

Minnesota Vikings at Philadelphia Eagles at 1 p.m. on Fox, Sunday's first game; talk about bringing power to bear: oh, mamma; Culpepper, Moss, McNabb, and the madhouse that's Philadelphia.

And finally, easily the best game - on paper - of them all: Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts at the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in Foxboro.

The world's best quarterback against the world's best defensive mind, Bill Belichick: that one starts at 4:30 p.m. on CBS.

Bonus: Phil Simms, whom I consider the finest football analyst in the world, is doing this game.

Oh, the excitement is palpable here in joeworld....

And don't get your knickers in a twist: posts will appear today and tomorrow as they do every day, with metronomic regularity, at the usual times.

FunFact: when the interval between heartbeats becomes precisely regular, a fatal arrhythmia follows.

The subtle chaotic variation in heart rate is what enables life.