The entire NFC is a mess entering the postseason

	The fact that Eli Manning's Giants may make the playoffs is a testament to how weak the NFC is this year. Damian Strohmeyer/SI
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Year-end review time, and from this vantage point it's easy to identify the most significant story of the NFL's 2006 regular season: The NFC's descent to second-class status in comparison to the powerful and more glamorous AFC.

How is it that the conference that boasts such high-profile and well-paid head coaches as Bill Parcells, Joe Gibbs, Mike Holmgren, Andy Reid, Jon Gruden, Tom Coughlin, John Fox and Dennis Green -- 13 Super Bowl trips, seven rings, and 95 seasons of NFL head-coaching experience among them -- has sunk to such embarrassing lows this season? Even by the standards of the past decade or so, with AFC teams winning seven of nine Super Bowls and not having lost in the interconference season series since 1995, this year has been a disaster.

The NFC is the JV of the NFL, and one must factor in the depth of its inferiority in almost every consideration, from MVP balloting to the Coach of the Year race. If your schedule was dominated by 12 games against NFC teams -- and sorry, Drew Brees and Sean Payton, we're looking in your direction -- you simply weren't up against the same level of competition. Case closed. And lest you think that mere hyperbole, consider the following:

• The NFC's six-team playoff field has never inspired less confidence. Top-seeded Chicago struggled to beat lightweights Tampa Bay and Detroit (six wins between them) the past two weeks, and is considered a good bet to be the least regarded 14-2 team in league history. The No. 2 Saints (10-5) are a great story, but their loss at home to Washington two weeks ago proved they're far from invincible, as has their 5-4 record in their past nine games.

NFC West champ Seattle (8-7) has dropped three in a row in route to clinching the worst division in football, somehow managing to lose its last three division games. Dallas, which started December as the "hot'' team amidst Romo-mania, has been blown out at home twice in the past three weeks, and is staggering into the playoffs in reverse.

And don't even make us bring up the mockery of a playoff team that the NFC's No. 6 seed will be. The "contenders'' are currently led by the collapsing Giants (7-8), the poster child for the conference's sinking fortunes. All of which leaves us with only the Eagles (9-6) in possession of any true sense of momentum as the postseason beckons. Like Washington last year at this time, Philly has gone from 5-6 to a playoff berth, but at best can probably only count on one home game in the postseason.

• And that's the cream of the NFC's crop we're talking about. The rest of the conference has been a much uglier train wreck. All told, 11 of 16 NFC teams already are assured of non-winning seasons, compared to six in the AFC. Maybe more eye-opening, NFC teams are under .500 for the season at home (58-63), and would need to go 6-1 at home in Week 17 just to break even for the year. Only one NFC team (Chicago at 6-1) is more than two games over .500 at home, and just five have winning records playing in front of their own fans.