Here at the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState, we have finally sufficiently recovered from last weekend’s quartet of NFL playoff insanity to compose some thoughts on the season’s penultimate weekend finally arriving. The AFC finds the Cincinnati Bengals — yes, really, the Bengals — traveling to Kansas City for a match with the Chiefs. At the same time, in the NFC, the San Francisco 49ers are heading down I-5 to meet up with the Los Angeles Rams.

Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs — Chiefs fans have become almost blasé when it comes to Patrick Mahomes working his magic in-between State Farm commercial shoots. They’ve also become inured against having domestic violence specialists on the roster. Kansas City believes having everyone’s grandfather Andy Reid as coach somehow makes signing head cases such as Damon Arnette a sign of rehabilitative power and not willful blindness to a felonious character.

Cincinnati fans have become so used to being mired in mediocrity many of them were unaware the NFL season extends for some four or five weeks past the last weekend in December. They are still trying to wrap their heads around the notion that football players in their city with those silly tiger stripes atop their heads are actually but one game away from the Super Bowl. The Bengals have disproved the notion that you can never go home again, as Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase have picked up right where they left off at LSU.

Yes, Kansas City has all the postseason experience. Yes, they are hosting the AFC championship game for the fourth season in a row. Yes, they are the obvious favorites. But also, yes, they are facing a team whose inexperience along these lines has led it to forget it’s not even supposed to be here, let alone win anything. There’s no reason to believe Cincinnati is going to choke now.

San Francisco 49ers at Los Angeles Rams — The Rams have arguably been a better team than the 49ers the past few years. Inarguably, San Francisco has had the upper hand over Los Angeles the past few years. But this is the NFC championship game, and yes, that makes a difference.

The 49ers got here by playing teams like the Cowboys and Packers that did a superb job of beating themselves. The Rams got here by summarily dismissing the Cardinals, then first jumping out to a substantial lead over the Buccaneers, and then after Tom Brady worked what looks to be his final magic act, coming back to secure the win.

San Francisco’s glory days of Joe Montana to Jerry Rice and pregame banquets featuring linen tablecloths in Candlestick Park’s parking lot are long gone. The team’s long slide into irrelevance before Jim Harbaugh revived the franchise and then skedaddled off to Michigan dramatically transformed its fan base from San Francisco upper crust old money to Bloods wannabes. 49ers fans are now what Raiders fans were once accused of being.

Rams fans are caught in SoCal syndrome. The team was gone for so long that it skipped two generations of a potential fanbase. Thus, it has a current supporter core of boomers who remember the team when it first played in Los Angeles plus the scattered few who base sports affiliation on geography regardless of time spent there. Also, given the team’s location, 70 percent or so of the local populace is blissfully unaware of what that funky futuristic big building is across the road from where the Lakers used to play.

Both teams have skilled performers who aren’t afraid of the pressure. San Francisco has Deebo Samuel and George Kittle. Los Angeles has Cooper Kupp and a rejuvenated Odell Beckham. The Rams also have Matthew Stafford, who has regained his early-season mojo. The 49ers have Jimmy Garoppolo, whose primary skill isn’t so much winning a game as not doing stupid stuff to lose one. The 49ers also have injury concerns on both the offensive and defensive lines, which isn’t a good thing, especially when you have the ball and the other team has Aaron Donald.

A personal note. Yes, I am a Rams fan. Of course I want them to win. When you’ve gone through a month such as I have, things such as sports get firmly put into perspective. Still, I’d greatly prefer the team I root for winning. It’d make a nice diversion from everything, which is the reason we have sports even if professional sports have spent the past few years trying to be woker than woke.

Enjoy the games, everyone.