A dozen Super Bowl matchups to root for and my NFL awards ballot

A Ravens-Giants Super Bowl is one of many potential matchups with intriguing storylines. AP Don Banks's Mailbag Submit a comment or question to Don Banks. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Don Banks on Twitter

The NFL's 12-team playoff field annually presents us all kind of delicious possibilities in terms of a potential Super Bowl matchup, but can you imagine the unrestrained glee of the suits in the league office if they're granted the pairing of their public relations dreams?

Imagine what the NFL (not to mention the media) would do with the following too-good-to-be-true Super Bowl angle: 50 years after the NFL title game that truly launched the league's golden era, that 1958 overtime classic of "Greatest Game Ever'' fame, there's a rematch in this year's Super Bowl. In actuality, the league has not one but two chances for a historic 50th anniversary rematch to occur. Which way do you like your rematches, by teams, or by cities?

Think about it. We could very well have a Colts-Giants showdown in Tampa on Feb. 1, or, and I think this would be even more interesting in some ways, we could have another Baltimore versus New York showdown being waged for the NFL championship.

Talk about your karmic convergence. We could either get Colts-Giants with its unprecedented head-to-head matchup of Peyton and Eli Manning, 50 years after Johnny Unitas and Co. beat the Giants in fabled Yankee Stadium, or instead be treated to Baltimore-New York II. Yes, it would be the Ravens and not the Colts, but we'd still have the Giants and the Big Apple attempting to exact revenge against Baltimore, the fellow East Coast city that was responsible for dealing them the most painful loss in franchise history.

Colts-Giants, or Baltimore-New York. Either way, the NFL and all of us who cover it for a living, would win. Let the hype-fest begin.

I know that when I made my postseason picks earlier this week for SI.com, I took the Giants and Ravens to meet in Tampa Bay, and not just because the 50th anniversary rematch of Baltimore-New York would make for irresistible Super Bowl storylines. A Giants-Ravens game of course would be a Super Bowl rematch of a different kind, given that Baltimore routed New York at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium eight years ago this month.

Unfortunately that year was only the 42nd anniversary of the "Greatest Game Ever,'' and thus the New York-Baltimore angle just didn't have the same caché. That's just the way these things work.

• Here's a quick synopsis of 10 other Super Bowl matchups that could produce some intriguing storylines:

1. Giants-Titans -- Reborn Tennessee quarterback Kerry Collins faces the team in he once took to the Super Bowl.

2. Panthers-Titans -- Collins faces another former team in Carolina, who he led to the 1996 NFC title game as a second-year pro.

3. Chargers-Falcons -- Not only did these two teams engineer the blockbuster Michael Vick trade prior to the 2001 draft, a move that cleared the way for San Diego to pick LaDainian Tomlinson, there was Michael Turner jumping from the Chargers to the Falcons last March.

4. Falcons-Ravens -- The matchup of Atlanta's Mike Smith versus Baltimore's John Harbaugh would be the first meeting of rookie NFL head coaches in the Super Bowl's 43-year history.

5. Falcons-Dolphins -- Ditto, with one caveat: Miami's Tony Sparano subbing for Harbaugh.

6. Dolphins-Giants -- Some how I think the topic of Bill Parcells' new team facing the club he coached to its first two Super Bowl championships would surface at some point during the week.

7. Panthers-Colts -- Bill Polian Bowl anyone?

8. Ravens-Eagles -- Baltimore's Harbaugh against an Eagles team that he worked for the preceding 10 seasons -- the last nine of them on the coaching staff of Philly's Andy Reid.

9. Cardinals-Steelers -- Arizona head coach Ken Whisenhunt would be facing the team he helped to the Super Bowl three years ago as Pittsburgh's offensive coordinator.

10. Steelers-Vikings -- Besides being a rematch of Super Bowl IX, which was Pittsburgh's first NFL championship, 34 years ago, the game would pit Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin against Minnesota's Brad Childress, who hired Tomlin as Vikings defensive coordinator in 2006.