Packers at Falcons: Ryan, Rodgers and rings

Narratives are often forced and misleading. They are necessary to bring in the casual observer, but they fail to pack punch and substance.

For Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, the prevailing narrative will be Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan cutting loose against each other in the Georgia Dome. It will be about Rodgers’ prophetic quest to run the table. It will also be about Ryan trying to reach his first Super Bowl in a year where he’s the likely Most Valuable Player.

All of those are obvious narratives. For a rare wink in time, they are the correct ones.

This game involves the Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers. It includes more than 100 players and two coaching staffs who have been working their entire lives – and certainly the last five months – for this moment. One more win, and the George Halas Trophy belongs to them.

Yet none of that matters in the historical perspective. The only two men who will be severely judged by the result are Ryan and Rodgers.

Ryan has not been to a Super Bowl. He’s only been to the Divisional round on three occasions and the conference championship weekend twice. The last time he advanced this far, Ryan and his Falcons were beaten at home by the San Francisco 49ers in a wild affair. If the former Boston College star suffers the same fate this time around, whispers will start circulating about him being one of the best quarterbacks to never see Super Sunday.

Atlanta is a forgiving professional sports city. The Falcons are the most supported of the teams, and yet nobody seems to be growing antsy about the prospects of going ringless with Ryan. At 31 years old (32 in May), time is both bountiful and running short. With offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan likely to depart for the 49ers after this run, there could be a fluctuation. The Falcons have never reached the Divisional round in consecutive years, and it may be a challenge without Shanahan running the show.

In his nine-year career, Ryan has thrown for 37,701 yards. He already ranks 21st all-time for a career, ahead of Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Jim Kelly, Kurt Warner and his counterpart on Sunday. Some of that statistic is a function of scheme, era and age, but the point remains. Ryan is criminally underrated because he has never approached the NFL’s summit, toiling in a sleepy sports city.

If Ryan gets to the Super Bowl, his career will be discussed in a different light. He would forever leave the ranks of Warren Moon of Philip Rivers, great quarterbacks who never arrived at this stage. If he were to beat either Tom Brady or Ben Roethlisberger, he would vault into an immediate conversation centering on his Hall of Fame potential. Fair or not, this is the life of an NFL quarterback.

Rodgers has already been to the Super Bowl, winning it back in 2010. He has a pair of MVP trophies in his show room and a litany of pundits who believe he’s the most talented quarterback to ever roam the earth. In short, he has nothing left to prove.

Then again, life is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. The Packers have been a popular choice to reach the Super Bowl for the better part of Rodgers’ career, and they only have one appearance since 1997. It seems like a typo when you consider the amount of success enjoyed in Green Bay over the past 25 years, but it’s reality.

There’s little doubt Rodgers will wind up with a bronze bust in Canton. He’s going to be remembered for ions, with people talking about his uncanny ability to run left and throw against his body, or how his worked in the pocket like Fred Astaire dancing across a freeway during rush hour. His name’s mention is history is secure. His place is tenuous.

Another ring and Rodgers joins a separate group. He would be only the 13th quarterback to ever win two Super Bowls as a starter (including Phil Simms, who was the starter for the 1990 Giants before being injured in December). All of those quarterbacks are either in or will be in the Hall of Fame, save Jim Plunkett and Simms. With all due respect to both men, nobody would ever put Rodgers in their class.

On Sunday, two quarterbacks take their shot at adding to their legacies. It’s an accurate narrative worth watching.