Dear Flem: Questions for Conference Championship Weekend

David Fleming answers reader questions about the last stop before the Big Game.

David Fleming is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine, who also pens "The Flem File" on Page 2. He's written some big-time NFL pieces for The Mag, including the security package and the cover story on Jeremy Shockey earlier this season. Point being: the dude knows a lot about the National Football League, information he normally deals out in a back-and-forth with one (lucky?) fan per week in his "Dear Flem" piece. But in keeping with the style of last week's mailbag column, today Flem is fielding questions about conference championship weekend.

JENN (SAN FRANCISCO): Is Larry Fitzgerald unquestionably the best receiver in the NFL at this moment?

DAVID FLEMING: The Houston Texans' Andre Johnson is the best wide receiver in the game today. But 'Zona's Larry Fitzgerald is the best receiver in the playoffs, no question. I always define Greatness as someone who makes something extremely hard look easy—and that was Fitz on Saturday night in Carolina. I should point out that part of the success Fitz is enjoying in the postseason is due to the fact that the Cards are running the ball so much better. They were dead last , I think, in the regular season (73.6 ypg) and they have averaged 115 yards per game in the playoffs. That keeps safeties honest and DBs from playing more physically at the line, giving Fitz a clean release into the secondary where he reminds me of—believe it or not—Wayne Gretzky, with the way he "disappears" in crowds then reappears with the ball in his hands heading toward the net, er, goal line.

PAUL (BETHESDA): Saw this post on ESPN The Mag's website and wondered, who are your top five QBs in the NFL right now? Are any of your top five in the NFL's Final Four?

DAVID FLEMING: To me, great quarterbacks are like great leaders: the most important thing they do is make everyone around them better. So I like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Donovan McNabb and Ben Roethlisberger.

LYNN (BOSTON): If the Eagles lose, how big a hit to Donovan's legacy is that?

DAVID FLEMING: I spent a lot of time with McNabb in Phoenix during the off-season and in Philly when he did things like dress up as Santa to hand out toys to inner-city kids, so maybe I'm biased. But I can't think of any way that this season does anything but elevate his legacy—no matter how it ends. Real character is what you display when faced with adversity, right? Well, since getting benched before Thanksgiving, McNabb's been on a tear, making the playoffs in the NFL's toughest division, winning twice on the road (did you see that 21-yard gain he created out of thin air on third-and-20 trailing the Giants 11-10? There are, maybe, two other QBs in the league who could do that.) to get the Eagles to their fifth title game in the last 10 years. I get the whole Philly love/hate thing (you can't have a great cheesesteak without a fistful of pungent onions, I get it) but McNabb deserves better.

GARY (ST. LOUIS): What do you think is the most marketable Super Bowl match-up for a fan's purposes and then for NBC's purposes?

DAVID FLEMING: Most of the studies I've read say dynasties are good for the game, because they draw in the casual fan and give them someone to learn about and root for. Without that, I think the way the Ravens play defense—swarming, nasty, scary, thrilling—would make even the most casual fan sit up and take notice. So Ravens-Philly would be cool. An all Penn Bowl—Steelers vs. Eagles—would be awesome. The Cards are a great story, but with one playoff win between 1947 and 2008, they don't have any kind of national following that would give the game the epic feel we all love. I don't really care what the networks do, just as long they don't insult my intelligence and trot out Matt Millen as a football "expert" again.

DANIELLE (REHOBETH BEACH): Do you think the central lesson of this NFL season is that you don't have to have "name value" to be a successful NFL head coach?

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Lewis and Reed? How about these guys?

DAVID FLEMING: Name recognition might get you a soup commercial but not much else in the NFL. Bill Cowher, I guess, has name value, and I watched him get out-coached a half-dozen times in the playoffs. I think what you're seeing is the Bill Belichick coaching style germinating across the NFL: great teachers and motivators who stay three strategic steps ahead of their competition and are constantly customizing their teams from week to week depending on matchups, injuries and game conditions. The difference between the old "this is what we do and we're gonna do it better than anyone else" guard and the new guard was crystal clear in Charlotte last week. The Panthers, literally, had no Plan B, while the Cards were running the ball and stuffing the run, something they weren't capable of just two weeks earlier.

NIKKI (SCARSDALE): I saw this article and wanted to know if you can think of a better LB/Safety combo than Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, all-time.

DAVID FLEMING: Sounds like you're a bit of a Ravens fan, so you're gonna love my answer, but how about Steelers all-pro safety Troy Polamalu and NFL Defensive MVP linebacker James Harrison? If you haven't thrown your computer out the window, then just let me say this: Lewis and Reed are a phenomenal, once-in-a-lifetime combo, but are they GOATs (Greatest Of All Time)? And why do we need to instantly quantify them? Can't we just enjoy this? I'll tell you why, it's because the stat geeks have infected football, and since they can't understand or appreciate the visceral, emotional, thrilling play of Reed and Lewis, they want to try and rank them somehow. Big mistake. Great DBS and LBs tend to go together—especially in the Hall of Fame. So are Reed/Lewis (LewReed?) better than HOFers Dick "Night Train" Lane and linebacker Joe Schmidt from Detroit, or Emmitt Thomas and Willie Lanier from Kansas City? Or how about the Packers duo of linebacker Ray Nitschke and Willie Wood? Not yet. Probably not ever. But will I be watching their every step this weekend in Pittsburgh? Yep.

ADAM (ANN ARBOR): I've seen a few Flem Files where you reveal your love of music. If you had to compare each of these four teams to a band from the last 20 or so years, who would each team be and why?

DAVID FLEMING: Awesome question, one that actually makes me feel bad about what my Miami RedHawks are going to do U of M in the CCHA this year. Kidding. Just kidding. Anyway, I hope everyone will chime in with their own answer to this one. For me, music is a lot like sports: you can make an instant connection with someone who is in every other way different than you just by sharing an affinity for a song, a band or a musician. It's the same way people in the airport wearing Steelers t-shirts wave at each other going the opposite way on the moving sidewalks. Is that Pollyanna-ish? I don't really care. I think it's cool. Anyway, to me the Ravens are like Rage Against the Machine—innovative, angry, thumping, the kind of band that makes you want to punch your fist through the wall then go out and change the world. The Eagles are like Van Halen, an American classic, and even though Eddie and David Lee Roth have seen their better days, and don't always get along, they're coming together for one last great run. The Cards are like the Killers or Kayne West: they keep telling (and showing) everyone just how great they are, but no one listens—until it's too late. And the Steelers are just like Radiohead: there is a beauty and power to their simplicity, the kind that sneaks up on you, like, you're listening to a song or watching a game and you don't even realize you're on your feet playing air guitar. Well, that and I've always thought Thom Yorke looks like Ben Roethlisberger's little brother, doesn't he?

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"Dawkins put me through a wall earlier."

JACINDA (CHARLESTON): Who is the most important player in the games this weekend? I think it's Brian Dawkins. He's lost a step and you can expose him deep. If Kurt Warner does that, the Cards might be in the Super Bowl! Or, is it Pittsburgh's O-Line?

DAVID FLEMING: Good call on Brian Dawkins. I did a feature on him a while back and sat through one of his training sessions with an MMA fighter. The room had a hole in the wall where Dawk had thrown a dummy through the drywall. Anyway, for the Eagles, I'd go with RB Brian Westbrook. As much attention as McNabb gets, that offense runs through Westbrook, who is banged up. The Eagles have become much more balanced on offense, but I wonder just how much more Westbrook has left in his tank. The player for the Ravens is easy: QB Joe Flacco. He's been nearly mistake free in the playoffs: one pick, zero sacks and zero fumbles. But the Steelers D held Darren Sproles to 15 yards last week, which means they're gonna shut down the Ravens run game and Flacco is going to have to make three or so big plays. Can he do it? Well, he's only completing 44% of his passes so far. The Cards need another big game from DT Darnell Dockett and the emerging cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Steelers? Well, I hung out with the Steelers defense a few weeks ago for a cover story in The Mag and I can tell you, they hate the fact that the Ravens defense has become this cult of personality that gets all the media/fan attention, even though Pittsburgh's D was ranked No. 1 in almost every category. But I still think the game comes down to a healthy Willie Parker maintaining the awesome 5.4 yard average he piled up against the Chargers.

CHESTER (BILLINGS): What do you think the "NEXT" Super Bowl will be? Not this year's, but who could be playing in Jan/Feb 2010?

DAVID FLEMING: Chester: God love ya, but you're asking the wrong guy. After finishing third in the ESPN Experts group during the regular season I've managed to get all of two games right in the postseason. Two! Part of the problem: sixth seeds are 4-0 so far. Wow. Anyway, I'll take the Texans playing the Saints in 2010. Lock it in. No. Don't.

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