It's the irresistibly lovable force meeting the immovably inspiring object.

The NFC has at least one wildly entertaining playoff matchup on the schedule this weekend. It's a shame it's so cuddly.

Two broken cities in Detroit and New Orleans, finding a rebirth through sport. Two flashy quarterbacks with god-awfully high numbers gunning high-powered offenses.

Football, of all sports, requires somebody to root against maybe even more than somebody to root for. Maybe it's just me; I like to yell at the TV a lot.

Instead, we get the Saints vs. the Lions, a game that feels like it's going to crawl up on my lap and start purring.

How do you yell at a team from a city that got destroyed by a hurricane, or from a city that's in ruins after the economy tanked?

How do you root against a team that had Barry Sanders, and then roughly 400 consecutive horrible seasons? In the last 10 years alone, Lions fans suffered through two seasons of Marty Mornhinweg's coaching, three seasons of Rod Marinelli's, and a flabbergasting eight years of Matt Millen playing team president. You're telling me they don't deserve a peek at the second round?

How do you root against Drew Brees (if your name's not Dan Marino)? Google the guy, and the very first hit is for his foundation, which raises money for cute little homeless kids in New Orleans. And he might just throw for another 1,000 yards in this game alone.

Fortunately, there's more than enough to dislike about the NFC's other game this weekend.

New York Giants defensive lineman Justin Tuck, of all people, called out the Falcons' offensive line for dirty play this week,saying "most people would say they are dirtbags".

Tuck, you'll remember, is the same guy who called Cowboys Stadium "a dump" before the Giants' first game against Dallas this year, then, before their second game said "I don't know if they ever deserved to be America's Team. I don't have a vote on that. The only people that it rubs the wrong way are the people who don't root for them."

(For the record, I care exactly as much about deciding America's Team as I do about deciding America's Next Top Model. I'm just happy Tuck took it upon himself to stir the pot.)

The game also features noted gaggers Eli Manning (we're overlooking Super Bowl XLII) and Matt Ryan (we're overlooking pretty much everything here but his two glaring losses in the postseason) in what's sure to be a choke-off for the ages.

How cuddly.

Dusty Lane is a sports copy editor at China Daily who is still in search of a great steak in Beijing. If you have any suggestions, he can be contacted at dustin.l.lane@gmail.com.

(China Daily 01/08/2012 page8)