Wisconsin

The main reason the Packers will advance to Super Bowl XLII is simply because their opponent is the New York Giants. These are the same Giants who made the NFC playoffs only by Wild Card qualification with a 10-6 record. The same Giants who enter the game after already playing back-to-back road playoff games. The same Giants who have Eli Manning at quarterback.

Ho-hum, the Patriots win again. Tom Brady was nearly perfect, completing 26-28 passes with three TDs. In his career, Brady has a 13-2 postseason record.

Why They Might Be Good: You could sextuple-team freakishly accurate shooting guard Michael Redd at mid-court, and he'd still go 7-for-11 from the arc. Thing is, Redd is a team player, the putz. If he decides to buy into the NBA's "me first" paradigm and hurls up 30-plus shots a game, he could be one of the league's poster boy ballhogs a la Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and Paul Pierce.

The Bears took their first step toward Super Bowl XLI with a season opening 26-0 win over the Green Bay Packers. The Bears became the first team to shut out the Packers in 15 years.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre is set to begin his final season in the NFL as the Packers host the Bears Sunday in what will be the last season opener of his illustrious 16 year career. Or will it?

Milwaukee Bucks forward Toni Kukoc has been a part of many big games. Known as the "European Michael Jordan," Kukoc was named European Player of the Year three straight times before starting his NBA career with the Bulls in 1994. He played a big role during the second Bulls' three-peat, coming off the bench to pour in 13 points per game during their championship runs.

JULY 15, PITTSBURGH PIRATES @ CHICAGO CUBS, WRIGLEY FIELD Things went so bad for the Pirates that even Jerry Hairston Jr. contributed to the onslaught with a grand slam (albeit off the foul pole), and then got into a heated, bench-clearing exchange with Pirate reliever Jose Mesa after his next at-bat. Of course, 39,000 suburban frat guys home for the summer left happy after the Cubs' 11-1 win, many of them singing the world’s most annoying tune. I’d appreciate the song much more if the lyrics "Go Cubs go! Go Cubs go!" were a command relating to the franchise’s geographic location. Chicagoans: There’s only room for one playoff team in this town, and we all know who it is in 2005.