This Sunday off the shores of Lake Michigan, the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers will play the most important game in the history of their near century old rivalry. The Bears and Packers will meet in the NFC Championship for the very first time this weekend at Soldier Field. The 202-mile war zone separating Green Bay and Chicago is boiling over in anticipation, despite the wind chill plummeting well below zero. From Sheboygan to Wrigleyville, sports fans are counting the hours down to the “Battle for Halas and Dallas”. With a shot at a Super Bowl on the line, Bears and Packers fans alike have been racing to find NFC Championship tickets all week.

The 2011 NFC title game will serve as the crescendo of the Bears-Packers ninety years of athletic animosity. Chicago and Green Bay first met on the gridiron in 1921 with Monsters of the Midway founder George Halas lining up at defensive end for the Bears (then nicknamed the Staleys) and Packers founder Curly Lambeau taking hand offs at tailback for the Gold & Green. A constant in the lives of fans in Illinois and Wisconsin, the rivalry has seen names like Butkus, Starr, Payton, and Nitscheke come and go through the years. However, never has there been a Bears-Packers game of such importance. For NFL fans in both The Windy City and Title Town, it simply doesn’t get any bigger than Sunday.

NFL fans dreaming of buying Super Bowl packages for the big game in Dallas this year are licking their chops with four intriguing playoff contests scheduled for the weekend. The New England Patriots and MVP candidate Tom Brady will face the tough-talking New York Jets on Sunday. New England and New York split their series 1-1 during the regular season, setting the stage for a must-see grudge match. The other AFC divisional match up pits old playoff foes in the Steelers and Ravens against one another.  The amount of bad blood between Baltimore and Pittsburgh will make for what will likely be the hardest hitting game of the season. 

The NFC is wide open with all four active playoff teams widely considered capable of making a Super Bowl run. In the Wild Card round - the Seattle Seahawks defied the experts with their emphatic upset over the New Orleans Saints, earning the right to travel to Solider Field to face the NFC North division-winning Chicago Bears. The Bears’ defense has been near the top of the league all season long, but head coach Lovie Smith’s team must avoid turning the ball over on offense to advance. The NFC Championship is destined to be a thriller with Green Bay and Atlanta colliding in the conference’s other divisional contest. Can Aaron Rogers stake his own Super Bowl claim in Green Bay or will the Falcons finally capture their first NFL Championship? However these playoff games play out this weekend, be prepared NFL fans for history to be made. 

On February 20th, Hollywood’s spotlight will shine on the world’s best basketball players with the East and West squaring off in the 60th edition of the NBA All Star Game.  A number of players have already established themselves as shoe-in selections with the festivities little over a month away. Perennial All Stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Dwight Howard are destined to be involved once again this year, but a few lesser known commodities are making strong cases for selection. A year ago, Derrick Rose became the first Chicago Bulls All Star since #23 retired. Many media members are calling for Rose to start for the East in the upcoming All Star Game with the third-year point guard taking his game to another level this season.

Other stalwart scorers fans buying 2011 NBA All Star Game tickets can expect to see at the Staples Center include Kevin Durant, Rajon Rondo, Dirk Nowitzski, Amare Stoudemire, Manu Ginobili, and Paul Pierce. The2011 NBA Dunk Contest should also be very interesting with rookie sensation Blake Griffin involved in the competition. The Los Angeles Clippers power forward has already established a reputation for issuing out crowd-pleasing dunks in his first year in the league. Look for Griffin to put on a show on his home court when he pits his aerial abilities against JaVale McGee, Serge Ibaka, and Brandon Jennings the night before the big game.