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Four legacies at stake in NFL conference championship games

Let's break down what's at stake for each team.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JANUARY 14: Minnesota Vikings mascot Viktor waves a flag reading "Bring it home" after the Minnesota Vikings defeated the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Divisional Playoff game on January 14, 2018 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)

Perhaps saying the next three NFL games just mean more is redundant -- and could even result in the SEC threatening to sue me for copyright infringement -- but it's remarkable just what's at stake for the four clubs remaining in the NFL playoffs.

The Patriots are the clear-cut favorite to win it all, checking in with even odds to beat their next two opponents; however, the Tom Brady hand injury caused a pretty large line shift in Las Vegas. But let's not pretend this isn't wide open thanks to some dangerous defensive matchups. The Eagles are underdogs at home for the NFC Championship Game and would be underdogs against either AFC team in the Super Bowl, but it's a role they embrace in a very creepy fashion (the Eagles are encouraging the creepiness, so there's that). They're rocking Nick Foles, but they can win with their defense and run game.

Let's break down what's at stake for each team.

New England Patriots

A sixth Lombardi Trophy for the Patriots might feel a little bit like piling on, an extra scoop of ice cream on top of a sundae we assumed would be getting a cherry at this point. But the Pats are like the Vermonster from Ben and Jerry's -- you expect the scoops to stop and they just won't. Piles on piles of ice cream. Eventually the dessert will end, but it could be a few more years before we see the cherry.

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick already cemented their respective legacies, in my mind, as the greatest quarterback of all time and the greatest coach of all time. Five Super Bowl victories for each of them in their time with the Patriots is just an incredible run, unprecedented in the modern NFL, when free agency and parity so frequently rip apart rosters. Adding an additional Lombardi would be a remarkable bookend though: Beilchick and Brady would have won three Super Bowls in their first four years together (2001, 2003, 2004 seasons) and three more Super Bowls in their most recent four years (2014, 2016 and 2017 seasons).

Last year Belichick passed Chuck Noll for most Super Bowl victories with five. Adding a sixth might put him permanently out of striking range -- the only active coaches with multiple Super Bowl appearances are Mike Tomlin and Pete Carroll. Same goes for Brady, who can never "match" Joe Montana's undefeated Super Bowl record, but who can put himself at six Super Bowl victories and move himself out of reasonable range for anyone catching him. Remember, Brady had more Super Bowl wins than the playoff starts of all three of the other quarterbacks starting in Conference Championship weekend combined. The idea of some future stud coming along and winning six Super Bowls is unfathomable.

And there's the matter of the whole "tensions" report that emerged earlier this season. Maybe there are concerns between Belichick, Brady and Bob Kraft. They've worked together for nearly 20 years in one of the most scrutinized and intense businesses you can; it would be surprising if there weren't some tensions. Winning a sixth Super Bowl could help put it to rest though.

Bonus: the Patriots will have won this Super Bowl with Brady battling a rogue hand injury that popped up before playing the Jaguars, and they could potentially become the only team in NFL history to win an away game in the Super Bowl if they managed to topple the Vikings.

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings already made playoff history by becoming the first-ever team to win on a walk-off, fourth-quarter touchdown pass thanks to the "Minnesota Miracle" bomb from Case Keenum to Stefon Diggs. Lost in the shuffle of that win was the Vikings sort of exorcising some demons thanks to Kai Forbath burying a field goal to potentially set up a win. The Vikings have one of the most proud, dedicated fan bases in the NFL. They are a long-suffering group, having won an NFL Championship (pre-merger) but having never won a Super Bowl, despite a lot of overall franchise success. (Minneapolis, by the way, doesn't have a title as a city since Jack Morris and the stupid 1991 Twins beat the Braves. No you're bitter, I'm not bitter.)

Under legendary coach Bud Grant, an 88-year-old man unafraid to walk around in six-degree weather while wearing a short-sleeve polo, the team lost four Super Bowls in eight years.

Grant is like an actual Viking, but tougher. But being tough doesn't make you immune to brutal playoff losses. The 1975 Vikings team lost a playoff game when the phrase Hail Mary was invented.

The brutal losses kept coming well after Grant left. In 1988, Darrin Nelson dropped this would-be, game-tying touchdown catch:

In 1999, the Vikings were 15-1 and Gary Anderson hadn't missed a single kick all season, until he pushed a fourth-quarter kick that allowed the Falcons to take the NFC Championship Game to overtime.

Spoiler: the Falcons won.

An offense featuring Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss and Cris Carter was shut out in the 2001 NFC title game. In 2009, the Vikings, led by long-hated rival Brett Favre, fell just short against the Saints (who would finally win their Super Bowl) and the Bountygate defense.

After the 2015 season, the Vikings lost 10-9 to the Seahawks at home during an absolutely frozen game (where Grant showed up with no sleeves, naturally) that featured a missed chip shot by Blair Walsh to lose at the last second.

Again: this list of disasters doesn't include four Super Bowl losses. Suffice to say, the Vikings have everything on the line here, in terms of shaking off the playoff monkey they've battled for nearly four decades. Winning a Super Bowl -- and winning it at home, no less -- would change this tortured fan base.

Individually, there is plenty at stake here too. Case Keenum could become a modern-day Kurt Warner story: undrafted, unwanted, bounced around the league and then unexpectedly fills in for the injured starter to win a Super Bowl. Mike Zimmer was often shunned in coaching searches, but looks like he might be a top-five NFL coach at this point. The Vikings defense could kick off a Seahawks-like run with a Super Bowl win given the talent on that side of the ball and Zimmer's ability to coach them up. Imagine telling Packers fans that Keenum has the same number of Super Bowl titles as Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.

Philadelphia Eagles

Another long-suffering NFL franchise, the Eagles also do not have a Super Bowl victory. They do lay claim to three NFL Championships (1947, 1948 and 1960) but, like the Vikings, the lack of success for the rest of the city's professional sports teams doesn't really help matters. The Phillies won a World Series in 2008 thanks to homegrown talent like Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Cole Hamels, but the Eagles are the city's true love, and they badly need a title to satisfy an ever-hungry fan base.

Philly sort of came close in 2004 under Andy Reid, but Donovan McNabb started vomiting and the Eagles fell short to the Patriots.

That was the team's only Super Bowl berth under Reid, despite Big Red going to the playoffs nine times in his 14 seasons in Philadelphia. In fact, it's the team's only Super Bowl berth since Dick Vermeil nearly took them to the promised land in 1980 with Ron Jaworski, when the favored Eagles fell 27-10 to the Raiders.

The true irony of the Eagles winning this Super Bowl would be Doug Pederson, a quarterback and offensive coordinator under Reid, breaking through before his mentor. Capturing the Eagles' first Super Bowl win in just his second season would be borderline statue-worthy outside the Linc.

The Eagles' victory would come with Nick Foles under center, which would be ironic in its own fashion. Foles was once the heir apparent for Reid, drafted in the third round by the former Eagles coach, but he blossomed under Chip Kelly, setting the NFL record for touchdown-to-interception ratio (later broken by Tom Brady in 2016), and prompting Kelly to proclaim Foles would be the Eagles starter for the next 1,000 years. Imagine Foles being traded out of town for Sam Bradford, getting benched for Keenum (their paths are intertwined and linked in perpetuity), playing for Reid in Kansas City a year and then resurfacing with the Eagles again under Pederson, only to be forced into a starting role because Carson Wentz suffered a torn ACL and then winning the daggum Super Bowl.

Let's not sleep on an offseason of creepy dog masks surfacing over and over and over again after the Eagles, the ultimate 2018 playoffs underdogs, win three straight games against favorites -- Philly would be a dog against whoever they played in the Super Bowl at this point.

Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jaguars don't have some long and proud original NFL franchise history to lean on when talking about their history and what a Super Bowl would mean to them. But few teams have experienced as much suffering in recent years, just from a strict standpoint of their team being terrible. The Jaguars haven't picked outside of the top 10 since 2007. The Jags drafted poorly for years, a decade's worth of failure.

They first entered the league in 1995 and have never made a Super Bowl, but could become the first ever expansion franchise to win one if they were to emerge victorious this season. That's a big deal, especially considering the franchise's first coach, Tom Coughlin, returned home to become the VP of Football Operations for Jacksonville this season.

Because it's fun to hop in the way-back machine, here's a photo of Coughlin coaching back in the day for Jacksonville, when he used to yell at Florida Times-Union beat writer Pete Prisco. The mid-'90s were so lame at the time but are so amazing in hindsight. Look at that absurdly uncomfortable hat and that Starter jacket zipper!

Speaking of the '90s, the Jags have only been to the playoffs twice since then. This is just the third season since 1999 where the Jaguars have won 10 games or more. They won more games in 1998 and 1999 (25) than they won the last six years (22). 1999 is also the last year the Jaguars appeared in an AFC Championship Game, losing to the Titans (who would go on to lose to the Rams in the Super Bowl).

For Doug Marrone, a Super Bowl victory would be a big, fat shot at anyone who criticized the Jaguars for hiring him. He was the interim coach after Gus Bradley was fired, and it seemed like Jacksonville settled when he was handed the full-time job. Instead, they've had their best season in this century.

It also would have the potential to kickstart a longer run for Jacksonville. Success can be fleeting in the NFL, but there is a ton of young defensive talent on the Jags, including Jalen Ramsey, Dante Fowler, Telvin Smith Yannick Ngakoue and Myles Jack. Malik Jackson, A.J. Bouye and Calais Campbell were free-agent signings, but they have plenty of good years left in them. This is a defense that isn't just going to go away all of a sudden.

And, of course, it would be impossible to talk about a Super Bowl victory without mentioning former first-round pick Blake Bortles. He was almost benched before this season, and there was some speculation he might be cut to avoid paying him $19 million next year if he suffered an injury. Instead he's 120 minutes from leading them to the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl victory.

No one is going to give Bortles all of the credit if it happens, but no one can take it away from him either. All of the silly jokes will quickly evaporate when @BortlesFacts just tweets "Blake Bortles won a Super Bowl" over and over and over again and NBC's "The Good Place" has to completely change their plans for future seasons to accommodate a Super Bowl win for Jason Mendoza's favorite team.

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