Or, as they are sometimes known, the Giants. They have secured the fifth seed in the NFC and the Buccaneers are firmly entrenched in the fourth seed, which means that this upcoming game with the Panthers is about as meaningful as a wink from a stripper. I'm sure most of the important players will show up for the game, but chances are not too many of them are going to take off their visors. Gary Shelton disagrees with this philosophy.

Hey, it's football. You play. A contract is for 16 games. You play. You try to turn nine wins into 10. You play. You try to keep the juices flowing, and you try to allow a team to feel better about itself, and you try to enter the postseason with a little swagger. You play.

Normally I would support the idea of building momentum and staying sharp for the playoffs. And I still do, kind of. But after Maurice Stovall broke his arm and Joey Galloway tweaked his shoulder and Greg White had to leave the game with some injury that I never did get a decent description of, I've decided to modify my position. The starters need to play a little, maybe a quarter. That's it. The team has no depth left at receiver or running back, the defensive line is banged up and no one has really played sharply for a few weeks. The Carolina game would be a nice one to win and be the first NFC South team to ever sweep the division. But God forbid Earnest Graham twists an ankle or Ronde Barber tears a pectoral in a game that has nothing to do with the playoffs. I mean, Stovall broke his arm. That's some serious shit.

So, the Giants are playing New England on Saturday and will either be completely bummed out from being the team that usher the Patriots into perfection or will be totally drained after having left it all out of the field to beat the Patriots that they won't be able to get up for the wildcard game. I like the Bucs' chances at home against the Giants under these conditions, assuming, of course, they're smart enough to unseal the manholes and get to Tampa at all.