By Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service

It's the playoffs. The NFL, a league with messy hair, has rarely been orderly this season. And there is no reason to start now.

For one thing, the playoff bracket has the turnover rate of a fast-food counter.

Eight of the 12 playoff entrants last season did not make this year's cut, including both Super Bowl teams.

Three of the teams which advanced this season - Dallas, Carolina and Kansas City - were in last place in 2002.

The No. 1 seed in the AFC, New England, started this season by losing 31-0 at Buffalo. The No. 1 seed in the NFC, Philadelphia, began 0-2.

Now the Patriots have won 12 in a row and produced three shutouts in their last four home games.

The Eagles have won 10 of 11. But a championship usually requires a sound running game and rush defense. New England lacks one (run game) and Philadelphia the other (run defense). So they have flaws like everyone else.

Meanwhile, Minnesota, which started 6-0, is not even in the playoffs because of the loss of its last game against a 4-12 team from Arizona.

And the St. Louis Rams blew home-field advantage in the NFC when they couldn't beat a 5-11 team from Detroit.

Story time

If there is that scant separation between the haves and have-nots in the NFL, imagine the hairs that January must now split between all the haves?

It is a postseason stuffed with story lines.

Tennessee, a wild-card team with a 12-4 record, must travel this week to play at Baltimore, a division champion who is only 10-6.

Indianapolis, with one of the most feared offenses in the game, has a rematch with Denver, which allowed the Colts only 37 plays from scrimmage two weeks ago.

The Broncos have not won a playoff game since John Elway's last Super Bowl. Peyton Manning has never won one, an omission he wears like a scarlet letter.

If he is to erase this conspicuous blemish, he likely will need help from his kicker, who has not missed a field goal this season. That would be Mike Vanderjagt, who enlivened an open microphone last winter in ways Joe Namath never did.

Instead of offering to kiss the interviewer, Vanderjagt assailed his quarterback. Manning responded by calling him an "idiot kicker." Now they need one another to get past Denver, and beyond.

Answers, and questions

Speaking of twists of fate, the Green Bay Packers, having stayed afloat because their quarterback mourned his father's death by throwing touchdown passes, were one play from elimination Sunday.

Then the Vikings lost. The Packers and Brett Favre went from off the board to hosting a playoff game this week against a Seattle team they have already beaten 35-13.

Dick Vermeil, at 60-something, has been busy trying to fix the leak in Kansas City's defense. The Chiefs are 13-3 but have given up 45 points twice in the last month.

The Dallas Cowboys have returned Bill Parcells to his rightful spot in the playoffs. Or is that the other way around?

If the Eagles get to the Super Bowl, the news media will have to take numbers to wait their turn to ask Rush Limbaugh about Donovan McNabb.

If the St. Louis Rams make it, the rise and fall of Kurt Warner will be broadcast in a dozen languages.

It is time to find out what a Jake Delhomme is in Carolina. What Jake Plummer has been up to in Denver. If Tom Brady is one more Super Bowl from true superstardom.

Will Steve McNair ever bother to practice again at Tennessee? Does Baltimore even have a quarterback?

So many questions, and now a month to sort them out, in a season with cell phones in the end zone and uproar in the standings.

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Mike Lopresti writes for Gannett News Service

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