Given the minuscule number of Hispanic players in the NFL, Sunday's lineup of playoff games appears to have already made history.
Mark Sanchez and Tony Romo, the starting quarterbacks of two of the eight remaining teams -- the New York Jets and the Dallas Cowboys -- are both of Hispanic descent.
What are the odds? Considering that the NFL has just 24 Hispanic players -- or little more than 1 percent of the entire roster -- they're pretty slim.
Sanchez of the Jets and Romo of the Cowboys are the only two starting Hispanic quarterbacks in the league.
Both men are gearing up to play in games that are unusually dramatic, even by NFL post-season standards. Sanchez's Jets will be traveling to his native Southern California to face the San Diego Chargers. At the dewy age of 23, the NFL rookie's sunny memories of Golden-State living are still fresh in his mind: In 2008, he finished a stellar collegiate career with the University of Southern California.
As for Romo, his Cowboys are squaring off with the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis. This, too, is a homecoming of sorts. Romo is a native of Wisconsin, Minnesota's neighbor to the east. Even more improbably, Romo is going toe-to-toe with the quarterback he grew up idolizing: the legendary Brett Favre. For his part, Favre, age 40, is looking to become the oldest quarterback ever to win a playoff game. (Consider this: When Favre was a rookie, Sanchez had yet to begin kindergarten.)
To this day, the 29-year-old Romo still seems in awe of his hero, who took his former Green Bay Packers to two Super Bowl titles, one of them victoriously.
"I just think that Brett has been playing the game at such a high level for so long that he's in a class by himself," Romo said recently, according to the Fort Star Telegram. "There's always comparisons being made to him all the time, but there's only one Brett Favre."
Adding to the story line is how the two quarterbacks over the years have become friends, and even text message one another words of encouragement.
In any case, it's safe to say the two men will put aside their mutual fondness for a few hours this Sunday in their bid to survive another round.
Meanwhile, the possibility remains -- however slim -- that Sanchez's Jets of the AFC and Romo's Cowboys of the NFC could face each other for Super Bowl Sunday.
How that for defeating the odds?
