It's championship weekend in the NFL, with the final four teams vying for the right to play in Super Bowl 52 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
This means 28 fanbases are left without an obvious rooting interest, other than perhaps hoping their favorite team's rival gets crushed on Sunday.
If you are looking to pick a side this weekend, there's something to like about each of these teams. But first, here's a look at each team's odds heading into the conference championships.
Conference Championship Odds
Jacksonville Jaguars at New England Patriots (-8)
Minnesota Vikings (-3.5) at Philadelphia Eagles
Super Bowl Futures
New England Patriots: 21-20
Minnesota Vikings: 23-10
Jacksonville Jaguars: 6-1
Philadelphia Eagles: 6-1
Odds are courtesy of OddsShark.com and updated as of Saturday, Jan. 20 at 12 p.m. ET.
The New England Patriots are the choice if sustained excellence is your thing. The Bill Belichick and Tom Brady-led dynasty is looking for its sixth Super Bowl win since the 2001-02 season.
Maybe University of Alabama fans will cheer on their professional counterpart in football dynasties as a good omen of continued excellence (or considering how far apart the fanbases are geographically, perhaps not).
The Patriots also have the most high-powered offense of the four teams remaining, so they also leave fans with the best shot at seeing some truly special offensive plays in the Super Bowl—though the other three teams are of course capable of their own bits of magic.
Then again, the Pats offense might not be humming along this weekend. There is a good bit of intrigue surrounding Brady this weekend. He's listed as questionable with a hand injury, and his thumb required stitches this week, according to NFL Insider Ian Rapaport.
The Patriots are notoriously difficult to figure out when it comes to who is injured and exactly how hurt a player is, but a limited Brady could leave the door open for their upstart opponent.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are the underdog taking on the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. Their history is not a glamorous one, with just one other conference championship appearance in team history. The Jaguars boast a voracious defense, a powerful running game and a fantastic, fun smack-talker in All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
Quarterback Blake Bortles has also become an object of fascination, as he's a middling quarterback just two wins away from immortality.
Some think it's wild that he's even in the AFC title contest, like former NFL punter Pat McAfee:
Pat McAfee@PatMcAfeeShowBlake Bortles vs Tom Brady for the AFC championship https://t.co/fbf5aixFne
2018-1-14 20:53:39
There are shades of Baltimore Ravens' Trent Dilfer here, with Bortles tasked with doing just enough to let his fantastic running back Leonard Fournette and the ball-hawking, quarterback-hunting defense propel the teal-and-black team to victory.
In the NFC, it could be a blast to ride the wave of good feeling and root for the Minnesota Vikings. They are in the championship contest thanks to one of the most remarkable touchdowns in NFL history—a play worth watching again and again.
The Vikings are also trying to avenge their franchise's four Super Bowl losses between 1969 and 1977, as well as become the first team to play the big game in their home stadium.
Minnesota's feel-good storyline also extends to their quarterback, Case Keenum—a journeyman who is having a career year. Keenum has the luxury of throwing to two excellent wideouts in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, with the latter responsible for being on the receiving end of the miracle in the video above.
Like the Jaguars, the Vikings are also predicated on defense, and they boast one of the oldest regular players in the league in 39-year-old cornerback Terence Newman (New England linebacker James Harrison is also 39 and a few months older, while Brady is 40; the rest of the elder statesman are kickers).
Newman is feeling so good at 39, he may not retire on a high note if the Vikings win it all.
"Let's just say hypothetically speaking that I was able to (win a Super Bowl), then why not try to get two?" Newman said Thursday, per Chris Tomasson of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. "You can look at it at both sides."
While there are reasons to root for the Vikings and Jaguars that hardcore football fans can appreciate, Bleacher Report's Mike Tanier noted that those two meeting in the Super Bowl might make it tough for the millions of casual fans who tune in for the big game to get excited about the whole affair:
"The Super Bowl isn't for the fanatics who study internet GIFs of off-tackle runs on Wednesday mornings. It's for casual fans to host parties and cheer for touchdowns, local rock jocks to dare listeners to eat live crickets in exchange for tickets and the corner supermarket to offer buy-one-get-one-free jars of salsa. An entire cottage industry has grown around the Super Bowl as a holiday. Vikings-Jaguars would make this the NFL's year without a Santa Claus."
Like the Vikings, the Philadelphia Eagles are without a Super Bowl win in franchise history, but they've been to the game much more recently than their purple-clad foes.
They are hoping to not waste a 13-win season and ride a backup quarterback in Nick Foles to championship glory. They are underdogs by a shade more than a field-goal, despite an excellent defense and a running game led by the ultra-tough Jay Ajayi.
Still, Foles is a big question mark at the game's most important position, which leaves their championship hopes in much greater doubt than they would be had Carson Wentz not gone down with an ACL injury late in the regular season. The Eagles remain defiant in the face of their naysayers.
"I was watching ESPN today, and all five analysts, experts, they call themselves, picked the Falcons to win," tight end Zach Ertz said after their win over Atlanta last week, per NFL.com's James Palmer. "I'm glad they're not in charge of my finances by any means, picking stocks here and there. If they're going to call us underdogs again next week, I'm fine with it."
Sometimes, it's fun to root for a team that has to do things the hard way and feels like an underdog despite everything else they have going for them.
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