Fantasy football.

The Eagles and Saints continued their fairy-tale seasons, but they will need imaginative scheme to bring down the Giants and Viking

In the NFC this season, the Cinderellas wear combat boots. And judging from the bruises on the posteriors of the Rams and Bucs, those combat boots have steel toes.

The Saints and Eagles kept the fairy tales spinning through the first round of the playoffs, winning games they weren't supposed to win, overcoming injuries and long odds as they had all season. The latest chapters of their improbable seasons saw the once high-and-mighty rulers of the conference--the defending Super Bowl champion Rams and the highly touted Buccaneers--humbled and eliminated.

The way the Brothers Grimm would write it, the Eagles and Saints would meet January 14 for the NFC championship in New Orleans after the Eagles dethrone the Giants in New York on Sunday and the Saints upset the Vikings in Minneapolis on Saturday. Could it happen? Absolutely.

The Eagles next will be facing a team they have not beaten in their last eight tries. "The Giants beat us twice this year and have had a good run," Eagles running back Brian Mitchell says. "But all things must come to an end."

For this thing to come to an end, the Eagles will have to both stop the Giants' running game and generate one of their own. The Eagles have had a particular problem with Giants running back Tiki Barber this season. In the Giants' first victory over the Eagles, Barber had 9 6 rushing yards on 11 carries. In the second game, he ran for 52 yards and had 71 yards in receptions. Of course, in those games, Barber wasn't playing with a fractured forearm, as he is now.

"Tiki is a very, very shifty back," Eagles free safety Brian Dawkins says. "It's almost like he's got Vaseline on him."