Four NFL coaches vie for the ultimate prize: the Super Bowl

Caldwell mostly avoided attention after taking over when Dungy stepped aside as the Colts' coach after last season. The transition from Dungy to Caldwell, the team's longtime quarterbacks coach, was as seamless as the Colts had envisioned. The Colts won their first 14 games and had their seventh straight regular season with 12 or more victories.

"How many opportunities do you get to take over a good team? It doesn't happen very often like it happened in Indianapolis," Vermeil said. "You don't get that chance very often, and I think they're better this year than they were last year. Jim Caldwell gets credit for that."

Caldwell sparked a national sports debate -- and talk by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell of possible reform -- when he sat down Manning and other key Colts against the Jets in the second-to-last game of the regular season, abandoning a bid for an unbeaten season in favor of being healthy for the playoffs. That strategy didn't work in the past for the Dungy-led Colts. But Caldwell's team made it work against the Ravens, perhaps in part because Caldwell had the club's offensive and defensive starters practice against one another in spirited sessions during the Colts' playoff bye week.

"Often times, what you lose is game speed," Caldwell said. "We did some hitting. We put the pads on one day."

Now the Colts are trying to put the controversy behind them, sidestepping questions about whether they have any regrets about choosing not to chase history. When Manning was asked about that during a midweek news conference, he said: "It was a number of weeks ago. We have moved on, and that is something that has served us well throughout the season and hopefully will again."

Chasing the ultimate goal

Payton has the Saints in the NFC championship game for the second time in his four seasons. His arrival coincided with the Saints' signing of quarterback Drew Brees as a free agent and their drafting of tailback Reggie Bush. Payton inherited the team after Jim Haslett, now the defensive coordinator of the Redskins, was fired following a 3-13 season in 2005. That was the season that the Saints spent as football nomads, playing home games in San Antonio and Baton Rouge, after being displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

The Saints have come to be viewed as a civic treasure since returning. Payton, the Dallas Cowboys' passing game coordinator under Bill Parcells before going to New Orleans, has embraced that. Now he'll try to get the rebuilding city's beloved team to its first Super Bowl.

"I guess there's things that we've been able to accomplish that this team or organization hasn't seen before," Payton said at a midweek news conference. "Yet the ultimate goal is to win a Super Bowl."

Payton and Childress grew up near one another in the Chicago area -- although Childress is 7 1/2 years older -- and are alums of the same college, Eastern Illinois. The going hasn't always been easy in Minnesota for Childress, a former offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles who famously was not always on speaking terms with wide receiver Terrell Owens during Owens's tempestuous final season in Philadelphia.

His job status seemed tenuous at times during his previous three seasons as Minnesota's coach. But the Vikings have improved their record each season under Childress. They've won two straight NFC North titles, and Childress's decision to lure quarterback Brett Favre out of retirement in August -- then personally pick up Favre at the airport when he arrived in the Twin Cities -- has paid handsome dividends this season, even if there were reports of Childress and Favre being at odds when the Vikings endured a 1-3 stretch in December.

Childress was given a three-year contract extension worth approximately $12 million in November, yet he rejected the suggestion during the week that this season's success has validated his work with the team.

"You do the best that you possibly can," Childress said. "We've got good players, good coaches, good ownership, and I'm not worried about getting validated. You have a vision. You sell your vision, and the success thing is never final. It's 'what have you done for me lately,' including this week."