SCOTT SIMON, host:
Time now for sports. Tampa Bay and the Super Bowl await the winners of tomorrow's AFC and NFC championship games. Will it be Baltimore or Pittsburgh, Philadelphia or Arizona, rye or whole wheat? We're joined now by Howard Bryant. Howard, thanks for being with us.
HOWARD BRYANT: Scott, good morning.
SIMON: I'm sorry, were you busy doing something else?
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BRYANT: I'm right here, Scott. I could barely hear you.
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SIMON: All right. Nice to talk to you, Howard.
BRYANT: I'm doing nothing else but talking about sports with you today.
SIMON: Thank you. I've built my day around it, too. Pittsburgh and the Ravens played twice during the regular season. The Steelers won both times. So do they have the edge tomorrow, or do the Ravens maybe have their number, finally?
BRYANT: Well, I think that Pittsburgh has the edge for a couple of reasons. One is that they're at home. Two, because you've got two very, very good players, Samari Rolle and Terrell Suggs, on the Ravens who may not play. And I think that also, when you beat a team twice, there's a feeling that you can beat them a third time even though it's very, very hard to beat one team three times in the same season. I think that the Ravens' defense is phenomenal, a really, really great defense. They're playing so well right now that they can probably win the game by themselves. But I'm still picking Pittsburgh to win just because I think that they've got a little bit better offense when it comes down to if the game gets so close because both defenses are great, and somebody has to make a play. I'm going to take the Steelers.
SIMON: And Philly in Arizona. I picked Arizona to go to the Super Bowl last week, and I was widely ridiculed and mocked. Looking a little better this weekend, isn't it?
BRYANT: But you can crow a little bit because I think Arizona could win that game. The one thing that drives me crazy is the contrived notion that the Philadelphia Eagles were turned around because Donovan McNabb was benched. The Eagles turned around...
SIMON: I think I said that. Yes, go ahead.
BRYANT: Because the Eagles run the football when they've got Brian Westbrook and he's healthy. I don't think the football fan can go wrong this week, and I think if you get an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl, that's great. And if you get Baltimore, Arizona, you've got great offense against great defense. Can't go wrong.
SIMON: Just a few seconds left, but Tony Dungy announced he's stepping down as head coach of Indianapolis Colts this week. This is one of the class acts in the country, not just sports.
BRYANT: Yeah. Wonderful - I really enjoy Tony. I'm going to miss him. I think he's class, he's grace, he's all those things that you read about, and I think the good news is, I think he'll be back. I think a lot of good coaches, they need a little bit of time. But I hope we haven't seen the last of him.
SIMON: And as some of his players and friends pointed out, the world gets someone who's very involved in his community and other things that he cares about.
BRYANT: Better place.
SIMON: Exactly. Thanks very much, Howard. Talk to you later.
BRYANT: Thank you.
SIMON: Howard Bryant, senior writer for ESPN.com and almost every place else. This is NPR News.