Many NFL fans consider this to be the biggest day of the season: The conference finals. Seeing who goes to the Super Bowl, as opposed to the Super Bowl itself.

I might tend to agree with that. Two games with so much on the line … has to be better than one, right?

As for how things turned out … I’m half-pleased.

Green Bay 21, Chicago 14. Good

Pittsburgh 24, New York Jets 19. Not so good.

Like many people of my generation, I have a generic veneration of the Packers, going back to Lombardi and the Ice Bowl and the Frozen Tundra. All that. I know the Bears have been around forever, too, and were a big deal … but that was before me. I like their uniforms,  and their stadium, and the passion of their fans, but they always seem to be dull. Their Super Bowl appearance with Rex Grossman as quarterback … we all knew that would turn out badly, and it did. This team with Jay Cutler, would have done any better? Probably not.

So let’s send the Packers, instead. First time they’ve been to the Big Game since the 1998, when they lost to Elway and the Broncos down in San Diego. I saw that one. The year before, they won it, defeating New England in New Orleans. Had a kickoff return for touchdown by, I want to say, Desmond Howard. Saw that one, too; I still remember how crazy it was on Bourbon Street the Friday night before the game.

As for the other game today, it’s not so much that I am a fan of the Jets … well, I’m not, and I’m not a fan of any New York team ever. But I have Steelers-fatigue. They’re good, and their history since the 1970s is exemplary (in terms of wins and losses, as opposed to how their quarterback behaves in public). But they seem to just be hanging around all the time and, rather like the Bears, they always seem about two skill players short of a good offense. I just don’t want them in a big game because if their defense does what it often does, they will win but it will be supremely boring.

The Jets would have been Rex Reed and his merry men, and New York would have gone nuts because the Jets haven’t been in the Super Bowl since Joe Namath. They’re due. Yeah.

So, yes, I would have preferred a Packers-Jets game. Half of it isn’t bad, though.

And, of course, I must confess that it is now three years since I actually saw the NFC/AFC title games. In January of 2009, I was in Hong Kong temping for the International Herald Tribune. Last January, I was in Abu Dhabi. And I remain there. So I didn’t actually see either game.

Doesn’t keep me from having a rooting interest. Maybe next year I will figure out a way to see the games.