NPR Sports

The Barbershop guys talk about which political party seems more bruised now that the battle over taxes has ended. They also guess who will be going down in the NFL playoffs this weekend. Guest host Celeste Headlee checks in with culture critic Jimi Izrael; sports writer Pablo Torre, NPR's Ken Rudin and former chair of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele.

Baseball: The San Francisco Giants, in winning the 2012 World Series, participated in 16 playoff games — and they'd have had more, had they not swept Detroit 4-0 in the World Series itself.

Football: The San Francisco 49ers played 16 games in their entire regular season. Three more wins would make them Super Bowl champions.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It is the moment of truth in the National Football League: playoff time. Pack the fridge, warm up the recliner, because there are some great matchups this weekend. Now, when the season began, we asked Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Theismann for his predictions. He was right on target, so we called him back.

Joe Theismann, welcome back to the program.

JOE THEISMANN: Thank you, David. Always good to join you.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Audie Cornish.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel. The governor of Pennsylvania is stepping in on behalf of Penn State University. He's filing an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA for its sanctions against Penn State. The NCAA had imposed harsh penalties in response to the child sexual abuse case involving the school's former assistant football coach. We'll hear more now from NPR's Tom Goldman.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R), says the NCAA badly overreached itself when it imposed punitive financial sanctions on Penn State over the handling of sexual predator and former Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. Corbett is filing a federal anti-trust lawsuit against the collegiate athletic association, saying it ignored its own disciplinary rules in its rush to castigate the Pennsylvania university.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Now, as Frank pointed out, a lot of illegal sports betting is spurred by college basketball. But college football also keeps plenty of bookies in business, especially these past few weeks with all these bowl games.

(SOUNDBITE OF ESPN BROADCAST)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Ohio, Louisiana-Monroe Advocare V-100 Independence Bowl, Rutgers-Virginia Technology, Russell Athletics Bowl, Minnesota-Texas Tech, Mineke Car Bowl of Texas...

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

For those dearly devoted of you who paid attention to me in September, I noted that the best bet in the NFL had proven to be whenever a West Coast team played an East Coast team at night, because the Pacific players had their body clocks better set.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

Right now in Pasadena, the floats in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade are the homestretch. The Rose Parade is a long-established national tradition, of course, watched every year by hundreds of thousands across the country. Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison covered the event many times and wrote today: Its huge cultural shadow has been as much about what you didn't see on display as what you did.

The NFL just wrapped up its regular season play. NPR's Mike Pesca talks to All Things Considered host Robert Siegel about key playoff matchups and possible coaching changes. He also has a sneak preview of college football's BCS championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama.

They're calling it "Black Monday" over at NFL.com.

It's the Monday morning after the end of the National Football League's regular season, and some teams that didn't make the playoffs are wasting no time in parting ways with their coaches.

So far, no huge surprises in who's being fired:

-- Lovie Smith, from the Chicago Bears.

-- Chan Gailey, from the Buffalo Bills.

-- Pat Shurmur, from the Cleveland Browns.