It's Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning in Denver, and hard-nosed defense against hard-nosed defense in Seattle.
The two NFL conference championship games - New England at Denver in the AFC and San Francisco at Seattle in the NFC - offer intriguing matchups between teams with similar strengths. They'll decide who plays in the Super Bowl in two weeks.
In the early game (3 p.m., Bright House Networks Channels 10 and 1010), Manning and Brady will meet for the 15th time, and the fourth time in the postseason, when the Broncos (14-3) face the Patriots (13-4).
The winner between the top two quarterbacks over an era in which quarterbacks have never been so good will get what could be the last say in the debate over who goes down as the greatest - not so much because of what the win-loss numbers will say but because this could be the last time they meet with the stakes so high.
"I don't know that there will ever be another rivalry like it, or has been a rivalry like it," said John Elway, whose own rivalry with Dan Marino was held to only three meetings because of scheduling quirks over their decade-plus careers.
The game will either give Brady a chance to match Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for a fourth title or afford Manning the opportunity to win a second ring, which would put him one behind Brady, and in the same company with his brother, Eli, Roger Staubach and Elway, among others. It would also make Manning the first QB to win championships with two different teams.
While paying ultimate respect to each other - "I feel like he's been a better player each year than he was the year before," Manning said - neither quarterback professes to care much about how their own head-to-head showdowns will define their legacy.
Don't believe it, says Phil Simms, who admits in retirement that the smile was a little wider after he walked off the field with a win over a Staubach or Joe Theismann.
The late game (6:30 p.m., Bright House Networks Channels 13 and 1013), matches two of pro football's most physical, relentless defenses.
Seattle (14-3) won the NFC West by one game over San Francisco (14-4). The offenses, while not nearly as imposing, have the right elements for a champion: strong running games, efficient and sometimes dynamic quarterbacks, and staunch lines.
CenturyLink Field might be the toughest venue in the NFL for visitors, with architecture that not only keeps the noise inside the stadium, but funnels it toward the field itself. Wilson became a starter as a rookie in 2012 and went undefeated. He won his first six home starts this season before a stumble against Arizona, but then Seattle defeated St. Louis to finish off the regular season, and New Orleans in a divisional-round playoff last weekend.
"That's pretty spectacular and it just shows how amazing our fans are, how much energy the city has for our football team," Wilson said of the supersonic sound levels the 49ers can expect to deal with when they have the ball. "That's what we're looking forward to, and we want to bring something special to this city, and to do it we have to play one play at a time and see what happens at the end of the game."
Not that the 49ers are likely to be intimidated by the surroundings. They went 6-2 away from home in the regular season, and their two road wins have come at venerable Lambeau Field in frigid conditions, and at Carolina, which had won its last seven home games.