FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Seat 2A can wait a few more weeks.

Not that New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau's one-liner that drives coach Bill Belichick a little crazy isn't still funny. During the dreary days of offseason mini-camps and workouts as the players were doing conditioning sprints under Belichick's watchful eye, Seau would break the monotony by yelling out, "Seat 2A."

That was the location of his seat for the plane ride home to San Diego when the workouts were done. The players would all chuckle. Belichick would fume, but just a little.

"'Seau, can't we just (expletive) concentrate on what we have to do right now,'" Seau says, imitating Belichick's reaction from the offseason. A few feet away, fellow linebacker Adalius Thomas shouts "Seat 2A" in Seau's direction and starts to laugh at the image of Belichick getting a little frosty with the troops.

"Yeah, Belly likes to get on us," Seau said with a smile as he took a moment from his preparation for Saturday night's

If Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and his team are lucky, Bill Cowher will stay retired.

Don't bet on that, of course. As human slot machines go, Snyder has the loosest payouts in the NFL when gambling on big-name coaches. Snyder's history as an owner is loaded with one splashy hire after another, from Marty Schottenheimer to Steve Spurrier to Joe Gibbs, who ended his four-year run with Snyder on Tuesday by resigning.

Snyder can't help himself from going after big names. He doesn't have the patience to actually do some research on who would be a good coach or, more important, why. Moreover, Cowher, who has said publicly several times this football season he's going to wait another year before getting back into coaching, may not stop himself from chasing the cash. When Cowher was with Pittsburgh, he was willing to extend his contract for another year or two if Pittsburgh had ponied up $7 million a year for the right.

Smartly, the Steelers passed.

Before you Chin defenders start

TAMPA, Fla. – Quarterback Eli Manning ended one prevailing trend of his career. Now, the New York Giants have to see if they can end another.

For the first time in his four years as a pro, Manning won a playoff game. More specifically, it was his best outing in a game of this significance as he efficiently guided New York to a 24-14 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday in the first round of the playoffs.

Manning completed 20 of 27 passes for 185 yards, two touchdowns and, most important, no interceptions. While this wasn't a defining game, it was perhaps an awakening of the talented young man who the Giants traded for shortly after the San Diego Chargers took him No. 1 overall in 2004.

"We have been in the playoffs the last three seasons and I haven't played particularly well in the two games before," said Manning, who was far more loquacious than usual. In fact, there were moments when the normally unemotional Manning sounded downright excited,

LANDOVER, Md. – Oscar-winning actor Edmund Gwenn, best known as Santa Claus from "Miracle on 34th Street," was once asked in his final days about whether dying was tough.

"Yes, it's tough, but not as tough as doing comedy," Gwenn said.

In the past month, the Washington Redskins have relied on comedy and winning to help them deal with death.

The Redskins are riding a four-game winning streak heading into Saturday's NFC wild-card game against the Seattle Seahawks. The streak began after Washington lost its first game without the late Sean Taylor, a home defeat to the Buffalo Bills in which Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs made a critical error in the final seconds because he didn't know a rule.

Four days later against the Chicago Bears, the Redskins were in the midst of a scoreless game when they lost up-and-coming quarterback Jason Campbell to a dislocated kneecap. Suddenly, Washington was without two top leaders while another was being called into question.

Enter quarterback Todd Collins

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Fred Taylor has discovered an interesting good luck charm for his next trip to Las Vegas: Jack Del Rio.

"I'm definitely taking him with me this offseason to Vegas," the Jacksonville Jaguars running back said of his coach. "After what we've done this season, oh yeah."

In NFL terms, Del Rio and the Jaguars have basically hit the number in roulette three straight times this season. As a result, the team went 11-5 and is considered the strongest dark horse among the four wild-card teams. Visiting Jacksonville was a two-point favorite for Saturday's AFC wild-card game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in one betting line, interesting odds even though the Jaguars won their earlier this season and beat the Steelers last season.

Here's the trifecta that helped them reach the postseason:

• In the offseason, Del Rio fired offensive coordinator Carl Smith, who had 19 years of NFL experience. Del Rio replaced Smith with Dirk Koetter, a guy who had never coached in the NFL.

• Del

It's not a complete lock that the Super Bowl winner will be decided by the AFC playoffs this season.

But the prong of the Master Lock most of you use to secure your belongings at the YMCA has just about clicked.

While much of the discussion going into the playoffs will center around which team has the best chance to stop New England's assault on history, there are anywhere from three to five teams in the AFC that can beat the best the NFC has to offer.

Be it the Patriots, defending champion Indianapolis, San Diego, Pittsburgh or Jacksonville, they all are legitimate threats to win the Super Bowl. If they get there – and that's the hardest part.

Defenders of the NFL's senior circuit will point out that Green Bay was 4-0 in interconference play this season. Nice, but the Packers played the AFC West, which is the worst division in the conference. Overall, the six AFC playoff teams were 19-5 against the NFC. The six NFC playoff teams were 15-9. That's a sizeable disparity.

Dallas was 3-1

LANDOVER, Md. – Here is an age-old question that goes with season-ending NFL games where either so much or nothing at all is riding on the outcome: Can a team switch on the emotion as necessary?

On Sunday, the Washington Redskins played as if they were connected by a giant circuit board in beating the Dallas Cowboys 27-6 at FedEx Field. It was the team's fourth straight win as it rebounded from the lowest point of this tragic season, the combination of Sean Taylor's death and a bitter loss to the Buffalo Bills conspiring to leave Washington at 5-7 in the standings and far lower in psyche.

"Four weeks ago, no one gave us a chance," said Redskins running back Clinton Portis, whose team also lost up-and-coming quarterback Jason Campbell along the way. Now, the Redskins (9-7) will travel to play the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday in the first round of the playoffs.

By contrast, the Cowboys played this game as if they had been wired by Ralph the Handyman, the unlicensed guy who says, "I can

My top resolution for 2007 came true, so I no longer have to hope that Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning will win a Super Bowl. That's good because I don't want anyone to think I regularly cheer for a particular team or individual. Last year was just one of those human moments for me – don't worry, those moments don't occur that often – when I couldn't help myself.

With that in mind, here are some resolutions to consider for the new year. These are the football ones. I'll leave off the personal ones, such as the promise to actually go on a diet so I won't look like mini-Ted Washington anymore:

I will continue to patiently explain to readers that I am not a Miami Dolphins fan. Yes, I covered the team for 15 years. No, I have nothing against the good people who work there and I hope the team can improve for their sake. But that doesn't make me a Dolphins fan. Please, dear readers: Don't keep assuming what I like or dislike.

I will hope that Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown and coach