The People's Choice - Conference/Super Bowl Rounds

You, the Internet, have stepped up to the plate and helped the People's Playoffs pick its lineup for the final two rounds of the ESPN Gridiron Playoff Challenge. Our roster locks once the NFC Championship game starts, and it will stay locked all the way through the Super Bowl. The Internet's favorite playoff fantasy football team needs to make up a deficit against the Jersey Mob for control of the 9beersfantasysportstavern group. Here are the players who will help us do it.
Quarterback: In the NFC slot, we have a familiar face. Aaron Rodgers will start for the third -- and fourth -- straight week. On the AFC side, we have a newcomer (to our squad, not to the playoffs): Ben Roethlisberger.
Running back: Both our running backs from the previous round were eliminated, so we have two fresh faces here. From the AFC, we have Rashard Mendenhall. From the NFC, we have the Green Bay Packers rookie James Starks. By contrast ...
Wide receiver: Continuity carried the day in these polls. Greg Jennings and Mike Wallace keep their starting spots from last week.
Tight end: We had a nice run with Todd Heap, but the Pittsburgh Steelers stopped it dead in its tracks. It's appropriate, then, that Heath Miller of the Steelers take his place in our lineup.
Defense/special teams: Yes, there are questions about how effective Troy Polamalu will be this week. But that didn't stop you from selecting the Steelers to take over where the Baltimore Ravens left off.
Kicker: An incumbent has been unseated. Nick Folk was available to you, but you decided you didn't trust the New York Jets kicking game at Heinz Field. You went instead with Mason Crosby, who gets the relatively stable conditions at Soldier Field.
If you haven't noticed already, our lineup is filled with Packers and Steelers. If both teams make the Super Bowl, we'll be able to make a real splash. If the Jets and the Chicago Bears prevail ... well, at least we'll have time to discuss what's been going on in NASCAR.
The poll results appear below, and another Super Bowl poll is now available for voting. Enjoy the games!
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Fearless Predictions - Conference Championships

There's still time to vote on the People's Playoffs roster for this week (and for Super Bowl week, since the rosters will lock on Sunday). While you contemplate your selections, it's time to tell you what will happen Sunday in the NFL conference championship games. Last week's predictions went 3-1, raising the playoff forecast record to a respectable 4-4.
NFC Championship: Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears. We'll set aside the question Bill Simmons fielded Friday about whether these two teams have a rivalry. Instead, we'll focus on what both teams bring to the table. Green Bay brings Charles Woodson, the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year, as well as Clay Matthews Jr., one of the favorites to take that honor this season. Chicago has Jay Cutler, who will be starting the second playoff game of his professional career. (By contrast, Mark Sanchez will be starting his sixth.) They also have Mike Martz, who sometimes still calls games as if he feels the words "blocking" and "tight end" don't belong in the same paragraph. Evidence? Cutler was sacked a league-leading 52 times this season, or 12 more times than runner-up Joe Flacco. When it comes down to it, the people who bring you the People's Pigskin trust Matthews, Woodson and their cohorts more than they trust Cutler and his offensive line. The Packers win a third straight road game and punch their ticket for the Super Bowl.
AFC Championship: New York Jets vs. Pittsburgh Steelers. There is no question that Mark Sanchez has evolved into a legitimate NFL quarterback. And Rex Ryan is proving that he can back up his big words with big games. But once again, it's a question of who do you trust. Pittsburgh has Ben Roethlisberger, who may have ridden Jerome Bettis' coattails to one Super Bowl ring but more than earned his second with a drive that culminated with one of the most famous catches in postseason history. On the other side of the line of scrimmage, we have Antonio Cromartie (remember him?), who can stand on his head one week and fall flat on his face the next. He stood on his head last week against the New England Patriots. But if the question is which player is more likely to come through again this week, the answer has to be Roethlisberger until someone proves otherwise. The Steelers march on to Arlington and the House That Texas Taxpayers Built.
We'll be back with the poll results.

Fearless Wild Card Predictions

There's still time for you to vote on which players the People's Playoffs will field in the wild card round of ESPN's Gridiron Playoff Challenge. Our goal is to dominate the 9beersfantasysportstaven group in this postseason fantasy football game.
Speaking of the postseason, it's time to offer a peek at what will happen on Saturday and Sunday in the wild card games. The Week 17 predictions for the People's League (including picks for that week and overall results) went 5-5, leaving us with a final season record of 59-36.
Seattle Seahawks vs. New Orleans Saints. When we last saw Matt Hasselbeck, he was straining his hip running into the end zone. And we're supposed to believe he's ready to face a New Orleans Saints team that has to be ticked off they're flying across the country to visit a 7-9 team. And it won't matter if they bring back Archie Manning to play halfback; the Saints should make short work of the Seahawks. And the sooner we all forget that a 7-9 team won its division, the better off we'll all be.
New York Jets vs. Indianapolis Colts. Let's discuss the recent Jets arrivals. Rex Ryan has spent most of the last two seasons running his mouth. LaDainian Tomlinson has spent the last few postseasons sulking. And Mark Sanchez...well, this pretty much sums it up. No, the Colts won't find this game easy, but it is undoubtedly winnable for Peyton Manning and Company. The Jets' road ends here.
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Baltimore Ravens. The Chiefs are not exactly charging full-speed ahead into the playoffs. Matt Cassel has been sacked nine times and thrown three picks in the last three weeks alone. Last week, the Oakland Raiders -- a team that would show its coach the door days later -- tossed the Chiefs around like rag dolls. Ray Lewis can still dominate a team like that, even if he does look ridiculous in his commercials. Look for the Ravens to manhandle the Chiefs.
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers. This one is probably the hardest game to call. Is Michael Vick fully healed from that thigh injury? Can Green Bay find enough of a running game to keep the Eagles defenders honest? Did Andy Reid have one of his coaches explain to his quarterbacks how the new overtime rules work? So many questions, but only one answer: fantasy football. And since this game does feature fantasy football's 2010 Most Valuable Player, we have to go with him. The Eagles should find a way to win at Lambeau Field.
Remember to get your votes in before the lineup polls close Saturday. Thanks. We'll be back with the results.

All in All, It's Just Another Post on the Hall

This post isn't really all that related to fantasy football, but it's something for the people who bring you the People's Pigskin to get off their chest.

Anyone who reads more than one article ever written by Peter King will know that he's one of the people who selects the inductees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And in this week's Monday Morning Quarterback, King was bemoaning the fact that nonplayers and noncoaches like Ed Sabol, the man who gave us the invaluable NFL Films, has not made the Hall yet. Then he offered a couple of ideas for changing the selection process to help people like Sabol and Ron Wolf get into the Hall.

Here's how it currently works: The selectors get a premilinary list of modern-era candidates in October and are asked to whittle that list down to 25 semifinalists. The semifinalist list goes to the selectors in November to be whittled down to 15. Then on Super Bowl weekend, those 15 candidates are pared down to 10. Then the selectors vote again to pare those 10 candidates down to 5. Then the selectors vote yes or no on each of those 5 candidates. Any candidate who gets 80% "yes" votes in that last round are elected and are inducted the following August.

A separate process can produce up to 2 "senior" inductees each year, so you can have up to 7 people inducted each year.

Here's what Peter King proposes to change this:

1. Take one of "senior" selections either every year or every other year and designate it for a noncoaching "contributor."

2. "Take the two non-modern-era-candidate slots and make them fit for all other candidates -- seniors, scouts, etc."

Those are nice ideas, but they don't go nearly far enough.

In this season of peace on earth, it's time to blow up the Hall of Fame selection process.

The problem is the seven-enshrinee maximum, which makes it feel as if the selectors are filling a quota instead of a hall. The last year more than seven people were enshrined was 1967, when eight people, including Paul Brown and Chuck Bednarik, were inducted. That year, the National Football League had only 16 teams -- half the number it has now. (The NFL-AFL merger was several years away.) That year, the Green Bay Packers had 43 players on its roster, according to ProFootballReference.com; now their roster has 53 players at any given time. And the Packers had 7 coaches that year, including Vince Lombardi; now they have 21.

In short, the Hall of Fame selection process was designed for a league that no longer exists. There are far more players, coaches and contributors in the NFL now, so it makes sense that there would be more people worthy of induction now. If you look at players alone, there is a glut of worthy candidates getting squeezed out by the numbers game, and that glut will only get worse as time marches on. If Tim Brown has a hard time getting attention in this atmosphere, imagine what Ed Sabol must go through.

The Hall of Fame should give football fans everywhere the Christmas gift of a new rule: We'll start inducting the exact number of people we deem worthy of induction, whether it's 1 or 5 or 25. And yes, they should start with Ed Sabol.

We'll be back with some fresh predictions.

The Worst Words to Hear

What are the worst words that a fantasy football player can hear?

You might think they would be "out for the season." There's no denying that the phrase can hurt you almost as much as it does the athlete himself, but all it means for you is that you need to run out and get his backup before he becomes the "Pickup of the Week." A few clicks of the mouse, and you're done.

A far worse phrase for anyone in the fantasy football universe is this one: "game-time decision." That's the one that will have you racing home, turning on every television set in the house and hitting the "refresh" button on your computer relentlessly until the team either releases its inactive list (if the team is having mercy on your soul) or takes the field (if the team is the New England Patriots, who like to treat their injury reports this way.)

Some injuries are harder to forecast than others. One thing that has helped in this regard is the NFL's new stance on concussions. If Kevin Kolb, for example, can't pass his test in time, the Philadelphia Eagles have no choice but to start Michael Vick and hope HE doesn't get injured.

But most of the time, fantasy players have to guess whether the word "questionable" means the athlete should be able to gut it out on game day (as Todd Heap hopes to do with his shoulder) or whether that athlete will be scratched late enough to make you question your sanity. The People's Pigskin benefitted Sunday when Beanie Wells went from "coach anticipates him playing" to "inactive," even though he kept the "Q" on our box score page. It's the sort of thing that can happen to anyone, even if you are paying attention.

Moral of the story: Don't take a player's status for granted, and don't believe everything an NFL head coach says.

There are still a few hours to vote on the polls for the People's Pitstop lineup, but if you haven't voted on them, please do so now. We'll be back with the results.