Steve Brownlee

By STEVE BROWNLEE

Journal Sports Editor

I have to admit I’m a bit bummed as the NFL playoffs are ready to begin.

How can that be, you ask? This is the most wonderful time of the year, as they usually say around Christmas, with all the one-and-done contests going on with only the best teams involved.

Well, after all the success of the past few years with the Detroit Lions, I’m definitely getting spoiled.

They’re not in this big dance, and as a consolation, even the Green Bay Packers getting in almost seems like they’re nothing but an afterthought following all the talk I hear about the Seahawks, Eagles, Patriots, Broncos, Jaguars, and ew … the Bears!

The good thing, though, is there’s no media polls Green Bay has to climb to get serious consideration by the national audience, read that as national print, TV and internet sources.

Win and you keep playing. It’s just that the Packers have to not only go on the road for every one of however many playoff games they play, but they have to do it almost with one hand tied behind their back with all the key injuries they’ve suffered.

So if the Packers get hot and continue playing after their little visit to the Windy City this weekend, I’ll get more excited about these playoffs.

In the meantime, something struck me about the college playoffs that will be finishing up closer to Groundhog Day than to New Year’s Day.

Now what I’m thinking about only applies to the big-time NCAA Division I programs, and only to football and basketball, likely just the men’s game. That’s where the really big money lies, the kind that keeps some players from coming out for their sport’s pro draft early, since they might make more money staying in school.

Here’s some of what I want to know:

Is there any such thing as an ineligible player anymore? What does “staying in school” mean? Does anyone go to class, even online ones?

Does anything happen if a player has a 0.00 grade-point average?

Or is this connection to colleges for these young athletes just a sham to make these now minor leagues of their sport seem relevant, interesting, even compelling?

In baseball and hockey, we of course have our college leagues, but even to this day, many more players go the professional minor-league route than to college.

Ever notice how little — read that more accurately as NO — attention that minor league regular seasons and playoffs get in the national media.

These are very likely the same-age players who are in college football and basketball, especially in this day of fifth, sixth and seventh years of eligibility with so many red shirts tried on that they don’t need winter coats anymore.

But the minors don’t have that “cloak” of collegiality, of rooting for the ol’ alma mater or the school that represents your town or state.

I saw a few days ago a story about a basketball player who had been drafted by the Detroit Pistons in 2023 that just last week made his college debut for Baylor.

Figures it was Baylor. The school that ex-head coach Dave Bliss made famous in 2003 after investigations found out he made illicit tuition payments to a couple of his players, then tried to cover it up after the fact by claiming another of his players who was a murder victim was funneling drug-dealing money to those guys.

By the way, the murder victim, Patrick Dennehy, was never any kind of drug dealer.

So back to the current ex-NBA player in college. James Nnaji of Nigeria, a 7-foot-tall center, had played professionally in Europe for four years before he was drafted when he was 18 years old in ’23.

Later his draft rights were traded twice, ending up with the Knicks. But he never signed an NBA pro deal, but did drift into the developmental G League.

Now the NCAA has said players like him can retain full college playing rights, and he can be on the Baylor roster for a full four years now.

Well, now that he’s in college, he can finally start making some money playing basketball — from some sort of NIL deal, I guess.

Doesn’t this all sound, well, shall I say, “donkey” backwards? As I’ve mentioned here before, I always thought paying college athletes would come from deals they could make with what NIL states — name, image and likeness.

Not a salary that boosters make collections for — or ticket holders to games have to pay extra for — to pay out salaries.

Nnaji’s debut was in a road game at TCU, and with the publicity his case has gotten, he was booed every time he touched the ball in their Saturday game.

Now maybe he’s not at fault, nor his school — yeah, right — but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

So with that uplifting story, let look at some lighter fare, like the knockdown, drag-out NFL playoffs. I’m listing the conference, teams’ seeding and record, game time and TV coverage (if any):

• NFC, No. 5 Los Angeles Rams (12-5) at No. 4 Carolina (8-9), 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Fox — It’s probably a good thing for the NFL brass that the Panthers defeated the Rams just a few weeks back, otherwise the call would go up again: How could a team with a losing record host a playoff game, let alone be allowed in the playoffs?

Actually, they should let the Atlanta Falcons play in Carolina’s place, since it was their win on Sunday that got Carolina in the playoffs on a tiebreaker with Tampa Bay. Plus, Atlanta has the same 8-9 record that the Panthers and Buccaneers have.

Even though I remember some previous sub-.500 division champions winning an opening playoff game at home, I don’t see a potential Super Bowl run by the Rams being derailed in Carolina. Rams, 33-26.

• NFC, No. 7 Green Bay (9-7-1) at No. 2 Chicago (11-6), 8 p.m. Saturday, Amazon Prime (NO regular TV) — Well, this really bites the big … I’ll say “bullet” … as the ONLY playoff game this weekend not available on regular cable TV.

I see online that people up and down about the eastern third of Wisconsin can watch the game on local TV, I imagine on Green Bay and Milwaukee stations. But we’re stuck here, unless you have a Prime subscription.

I don’t know if it’s any consolation, but I see that a replay of the game is scheduled to be shown at midnight not long after the game is over, 6 a.m. the next morning and 4:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon on the NFL Network, much like the network did with regular-season Thursday night games that were also only shown on Internet “channels.”

As far as this game goes, I’m torn with who Green Bay is missing, particularly tight end Tucker Kraft and defensive end Micah Parsons. This just isn’t the same team that started the season.

I can see the Chi-town cubbies’ playoff rookies having a few hiccups, but that the Pack can’t take enough advantage of them. Bears, 26-22.

• AFC, No. 6 Buffalo (12-5) at No. 3 Jacksonville (13-4), 1 p.m. Sunday, CBS — Maybe the most intriguing matchup of the weekend, not necessarily because they’re two big favorites for the Super Bowl, but because either could go from being that good to being a total flame-out in these playoffs.

Can quarterback Josh Allen carry his otherwise unworthy-of-the-playoffs Bills to the promised land with the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and Bengals’ Joe Burrow not anywhere to be seen?

Can the usually underachieving Jacksonville unit, certainly when Trevor Lawrence has been QB, suddenly put it together for once when it means the most?

I’m trying not to pick these games based on what I think the ultimate potential of each team is, otherwise I might’ve picked the Packers in the previous game.

So even though I like the Bills’ upside more for a long playoff run, I’m going to take the Jaguars, 31-28.

• NFC, No. 6 San Francisco (12-5) at No. 3 Philadelphia (11-6), 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Fox — You know it has to be a bad sign when a website named “NinersWire” — it’s some sort of big fan site of the 49ers — has its Wednesday headline reading “49ers 1st playoff injury update is a disaster.”

And this for a team whose injury situation has been a disaster nearly all season.

I think San Fran got exposed last week vs. Seattle, and with Philly also being a team stronger on defense, I see a similar result. Eagles, 24-19.

• AFC, No. 7 Los Angeles Chargers (11-6) at No. 2 New England (14-3), 8 p.m. Sunday, NBC — A pair of squads whose head coaches — the Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh and Patriots’ Mike Vrabel — have a lot more playoff experience than their teams do.

Harbaugh got San Fran to a Super Bowl 13 years ago before he lost to his brother John’s Ravens, while just four years ago Vrabel had Tennessee as a No. 1 seed in the AFC, though never living up to the potential that should mean in the playoffs.

Vrabel seems like such a solid guy, enough that I think he can negate most or all of the advantage that Jim Harbaugh would have over most coaches in this circumstance.

That leaves the teams, and New England seems much more solid at this point of the season, especially playing in the Northeast in January. Patriots, 23-17.

• AFC, No. 5 Houston (12-5) at No. 4 Pittsburgh (10-7), 8:15 p.m. Monday, ABC and ESPN — I’m not sure why this game got chosen as the Monday game, the final game of this round. Unless you really have a strong interest in defense, this seems like a game that could bore you to sleep by the end of the first quarter.

However, I am appreciative of good defense — it’s what always annoys me about the NBA — which the Texans can bring in spades, clubs, hearts, diamonds, tarot cards and an Uno deck.

Especially against the creaky knees of 42-year-old — he had a birthday on Dec. 2 — Steelers’ QB Aaron Rodgers.

And Pittsburgh might not even need a ferocious “D” to short-circuit the offense Houston often puts on the field.

So, give me the Texans, 24-15.

Last week — 10-6, 63 percent. Season — 152-102, 60 percent.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.