Up next in NFL: A history lesson

Johnny Unitas, legendary quarterback of the Baltimore Colts years before that organization scurried off to Indianapolis, once famously told his adopted Baltimore Ravens: “I’m not you, but I’m certainly not them.”

After Unitas died in 2002, the Ravens honored him with a larger-than-life bronze statue outside M&T; Bank Stadium. As fans enter for home games, they routinely touch his high-top cleats for good luck.

Surely, there will be a mass laying of hands Saturday when the Ravens play host to the Colts in a divisional playoff game, with the winner advancing to play for the AFC championship.

Indianapolis, which won its first four road games, has lost its last four. The Ravens went 7-1 at home this season.

“Not like we need anything more than a playoff game for the fans to get cranked up,” Coach Brian Billick said over the weekend about the possibility of playing the Colts, “but based on what I’m hearing

The history between Seattle and Chicago isn’t nearly as bitter, but the Seahawks would love to cleanse their bad memories. They get another crack at the Bears on Sunday, a chance to avenge a 37-6 defeat at Soldier Field in Week 4.

The Seahawks, who were missing tailback Shaun Alexander at the time, could muster just 77 yards rushing and Chicago’s Ricky Manning Jr. intercepted a pair of passes against them. Bears quarterback Rex Grossman threw for 232 yards and two touchdowns, dropping nary a hint of how shaky he would become as the season wore on.

Grossman did make a prophetic comment about the Seahawks after that Oct. 1 game, however, saying: “They’re a lot better than they played tonight and we realize that.... We realize we may face them down the road at some point.”

In the AFC, the road to the Super Bowl goes through San Diego, where the Chargers have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs thanks to their 14-2 record. Just how long their playoff experience will last is another issue, seeing as they open with a very dangerous opponent in the New England Patriots. New England has reached the playoffs in four consecutive seasons, and has had a winning record six years in a row, the NFL’s longest such streak.

Since Bill Belichick became coach, the Patriots are 11-1 in the postseason. They went 7-1 on the road this season.

Coming off a wild-card victory over the New York Jets, the Patriots have won seven of eight since losing consecutive games in November. They’ve had more postseason success in recent years than anyone, winning three Super Bowls with quarterback Tom Brady directing the offense.

But the top-seeded Chargers are anything but pushovers. They are led by running back LaDainian Tomlinson, recently named the league’s most valuable player, who set an NFL record with 31 touchdowns this season and rushed for more than 100 yards in 10 of 16 games.

“It’s a huge challenge, the best team in the NFL this year, the MVP,” New England linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. “It’s a huge challenge.”

Vince Wilfork, a Patriots defensive lineman, called the Chargers “the best team in the NFL, hands down.”

Philip Rivers starts at quarterback for the Chargers, but the man he replaced, Drew Brees, helped New Orleans secure a home playoff game. Brees, who finished a distant second to his friend Tomlinson in the MVP voting, will face Philadelphia on Saturday night for the second time this season.

In mid-October, when they faced each other at the Superdome, the Saints pulled out a 27-24 victory over Philadelphia when John Carney kicked a 31-yard field goal as time expired. That was the point at which people around the country really started to take notice of the Saints, seeing them more as a legitimate playoff contender than simply a feel-good story.

Brees threw for three touchdowns in that game -- two to Joe Horn -- and was well protected throughout. The Eagles never sacked him.

But Hollis Thomas, a former Philadelphia defensive lineman who plays for New Orleans, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune on Sunday that the Saints have to banish the memory of that regular-season victory. The playoffs are a different animal.

“You just cancel the first game out of your head,” he told the newspaper. “We beat them the first time. It was a close game. It wasn’t like we blew them out of the water. We can’t just roll our helmets out on the field and expect them to lay down.”

Associated Press contributed to this report.

sam.farmer@latimes.com