After four long months, we have come away with a familiar match-up in the AFC Championship.

Brady vs. Manning.

This Sunday, it will be nearly 10 years to the day since two of the greatest professional quarterbacks in any lifetime met in the playoffs. It feels like this could realistically be the last time they meet with the stakes so high.

They are intrinsically linked, despite their football narratives taking entirely opposite paths, they remain relatively the same.

Peyton Manning could never quite get over the hump in the playoffs, despite stellar numbers and regular season records that nearly every QB would trade for. Then, he broke through the New England and Super Bowl barrier in 2006.

All seemed settled, the monkey removed from his back. Yet as time has passed from that magical day in Miami, when the Colts beat the Bears in an ugly, wet game, Manning’s place among the elite of the elite remains a question for some, due largely – if not entirely – to his continuing poor performance in the playoffs.

Tom Brady had it pretty good the first half of his career. With a masterful coach, a tremendous defense and a clutch kicker, the Patriots won three Super Bowls in four years. But he never had the stats or regular season records to match the Mannings, Marinos and Elways. Then 2007 happened. Finally armed with two receivers not found at a Dollar General store, Brady shattered records and the Patriots had the first undefeated regular season since Nixon was in office.

But Brady had found life to be a bit tougher in recent years – with two Super Bowl losses at the hands of Tom Coughlin, Peyton’s little brother Eli and the New York Giants. As Gisele said so eloquently, Tom can’t catch the ball or play defense, too. He’s just a man. A man in Uggs.

As we often find, there’s more to it than just that. The Patriots have had the better organization, which means their team is often well-rounded, while Manning’s days with the Colts were often marked by a defense that never materialized into anything more than subpar.

Though not necessarily by choice, Manning has moved on to Denver in his NFL golden years and found a team chalked with talent on both sides of the ball, leading to a superior team in each of the past two regular seasons. As the numbers and MVPs pile it, it is safe to assume that he really should not need anything else to stake claim to the label of greatest quarterback ever.

But a second Super Bowl ring sure would put it to rest.

Brady has survived and thrived long enough that the Patriots have been forced to basically overhaul their team in chunks over the past two or three seasons. While that has not stopped New England from piling up more division titles and first round byes and AFC Championship or Super Bowl appearances, the fact remains Brady and Belichick have not won a Super Bowl since February 2005 – remember, when Terrell Owens actually mattered and Donovan McNabb was throwing up in the fourth quarter? If it seems so long ago – it is.

Even without the gaudy, long term stats, Brady will always have a logical claim to the label of greatest quarterback ever.

But a fourth Super Bowl ring sure would help drive the point home.

However, it should be obvious: this debate will not end come Sunday. For those who actually pay attention, there is far too much else that happens on and off the field to allow this conversation to be settled. It might never be – and maybe it should not.

They have taken turns breaking each other’s records. Each has probably been at their very best not when breaking those marks, but in the seasons where they excelled when they probably should not have.

Like the years Manning and the Colts offense was actually their defense, used to keep other teams – and the porous Colts defense – off the field. Or this season, when Brady has guided the Patriots to another double-digit win total with huge injuries and lack of experience on both sides of the ball.

Plainly stated, both are in many minds, the best of all time. No other quarterbacks have done it in so many different ways and for so long.

Their stories have a different arc, but a similar tone. Manning was perhaps relied on more (at least up ‘til now) than Brady. As a friend stated, it must be nice to have a running game like the Patriots did on Saturday against the Colts, or to play against a young Andrew Luck, who threw four interceptions.

Perhaps, but just the same as I am sure Brady would trade his receiving core for Manning’s at any point in their careers except for possibly 2007. Just the same as Manning would probably take the Patriots defense over any the Colts had in every year but the 2006 playoffs.

You see, they are at the same time very similar, yet very different. They have defined their teams and the NFL for the past decade-plus.

And really, all this comes down to are a bunch of largely superfluous factors that really are more telling of us than they are them.

For example, where you live, what your favorite team is, what you appreciate in football, what you value in a quarterback. Do you enjoy winning consistently and your team having a chance, or do you value championship trophies more? Do you like a cerebral quarterback with a master command or a quarterback so precise between 15-35 yards he could hit Lincoln’s nose on a penny?

So what are we arguing about? The simple fact we like one guy or another. That’s it.

Manning and Brady do not think of this the same way we do. They like and respect each other. In fact, they are better friends than most people know, often talking and texting about life – and football; like sharing game plans on how to beat other teams. Of course they want to win, but I doubt if they sit around comparing resumes and arguing about who is better.

We’ve been wasting so much time pointing out all the things we don’t like, or what we think is the reason one is better than the other. It is just what we do. We need to know. We need people to agree with us. We want a clear-cut winner in this.

But no matter the outcome, we won’t know any more after this game than we did before it. Perhaps it is time to stop finding so much strength or fault in either man and appreciate them both at the same time.

Let us just enjoy the show before the final credits.

This great debate is nothing more than a distraction to the show.

In the words of T.O., grab your popcorn.