The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Jan. 19, 2011

For all the talk leading up to Sunday's AFC divisional playoff game between New England and the New York Jets, it left me wondering.

Is this really what some teams need to do in order to get fired up for a football game or any other athletic competition?

THERE WAS a time last week when you couldn't even turn the television on without hearing a player from the Jets or the Patriots expressing their feelings through the media.

As fans, we get it. We know you're not going to be shaking each other's hands before the game and, most likely not trading vacation plans after the Super Bowl.

But those feelings come with the competition.

Both teams are out to reach the top of the sport, not to make friends on the football field.

The game finally kicked off and throughout the game, the Jets did exactly what they set out to do - win.

After the game, it was like the Jets had won a prize fight, with backflips and fist pumps while walking off their arch enemy's home field.

This week, as the New York Jets take on the Pittsburgh Steelers for the AFC championship, the talk has calmed down, at least for the past two days.

BUT TO think that this is what it really takes to get a team prepared to compete in a playoff game is something that I can't quite understand.

Area teams are beginning to settle into seeds for their respective postseason tournaments, and I'm 99.9 percent sure that those methods aren't shared by many of the coaches in the area.

Not that a few of them don't have the confidence in their players to win games - they just let their play on the court speak for itself.

Very quietly last week, a third-ranked team took down a No. 1, but there wasn't a large group of people rushing the court like the scene in Tallahassee when top-ranked Duke lost to Florida State.

But when the North Idaho College wrestling team handed Clackamas a 33-11 loss on its home mat in Oregon City on Friday, the celebration was likely limited to a couple handshakes and getting back on the van.

The reason, is when you're chasing the same goal, winning shouldn't be considered an upset - no matter where it is.

WHETHER OR not you agree with the trash talking, it makes games more interesting leading up to the day of the event.

Teams seem to play a little bit harder when there is more on the line than just another win or loss.

Fans have spent all summer listening to the expectations of the Jets and just what they're going to do.

Just don't expect any title to be settled by trash talk.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.