The Pressbox

What a great weekend of games for the NFL playoffs. All four games had plenty of compelling action and interesting story lines. Here are a few of my thoughts.

* It was a lot of fun watching Brett Favre frolic in the Green Bay snow. And you had feel good for Ryan Grant, who basically handed Seattle a 14-0 lead with two early fumbles but came back to rush for more than 200 yards and 3 touchdowns. He made people forget about the fumbles.

* Has there ever been a player in more command of the game than Tom Brady? He is supremely confident in the pocket. Nothing seems to rattle him. It is fun to watch the way he picks apart defenses. I must admit that I was one of the people who wanted to see Drew Henson play ahead of Brady at Michigan. His development as an NFL quarterback has been astounding.

* Who would have thought that San Diego could go into Indianapolis with Antonio Gates, LaDainian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers all hurting and upset the Colts? I kind of wanted to see Peyton Manning go head-to-head with Brady, but San Diego deserved the win. It was an inspired performance.

* A Manning made it to a conference championship game, but not many were betting it would be Eli. He did a solid job, but the real credit for the New York Giants’ upset of Dallas goes to the New York defense. Injuries decimated the Giant secondary, but they still found a way to win.

I planned to watch football all day Monday, but as I was flipping through the channels I stumbled upon the outdoor NHL game pitting Pittsburgh against Buffalo and wound up watching quite a bit of it during commercial breaks for the Michigan football game.

It was very entertaining with a big crowd packed into a football stadium and snow showers popping up intermittently throughout the afternoon. On top of that, it was a great game, going down to a shootout.

The NHL is famous for messing up its marketing, but this was perfect. A fresh idea on a holiday. Maybe it will become a tradition like Thanksgiving Day games in the NFL.