NFC: East | Central | West    AFC: East | Central | West

With realignment looming, ESPN The Magazine bids farewell to the NFC Central (as we've known it).

THE DEAL

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: If they don't get to New Orleans in January, Tony Dungy better update his résumé. Grade: A-

2. Green Bay Packers: Favre & Co. finished red-hot. Can they ride that heat wave into the postseason? Grade: B

3. Minnesota Vikings: Every time you write the Vikes off, Denny Green finds a way to write them back in. Grade: B-

4. Detroit Lions: The Lions will be toothless pussycats if Batch can't manage to stay healthy. Grade: C

5. Chicago Bears: Not nearly enough horses to play with the big boys this season. Grade: D

THE DIVISION

Motto: Bad to the Bone.

What It Was: Backyard brawls breaking out in a cloud of dust, a sea of mud or, now and then, "on the fro-zen tun-dra of Lam-beau Field." The Black and Blue Division came by the name honestly. True to its Midwestern roots, the NFL Central defined bone-jarring, bone-chilling football, in rep and reality a blue-collar game devoured by never-say-brrrrr fans. No division offered better bellringers -- from Dick Butkus to Ray Nitschke to Mike Singletary to John Lynch -- or fiercer rivalries. Packers-Lions. Lions-Bears. Packers-Vikings. So who invited the Buccaneers?

What It Is: Even with a Florida team trying to pass for Midwesterners, you're still looking at one tough bunch. Multiple contenders every season. A rep in the last six NFC championship games. Why? Because there's no better way for a team to prep for the postseason than by surviving the special brand of intradivision warfare that's still common here. You don't win the NFC Central so much as you survive it.

To Rock It: You must have a good ground game. The Bucs call Warrick Dunn's number. The Packers bring Ahman Green and sometimes Dorsey Levens. The Vikings had the best in Robert Smith, but then the doc decided to practice a little preventative medicine and hang 'em up at age 28. Your ground game's so important because it's the only hope you have of keeping Warren Sapp honest. But you've got to be able to go up top every now and then, as the Bucs found out against the Eagles in the playoffs. So they signed Brad Johnson. They had to have somebody who could give Keyshawn the damn ball..

This preview is excerpted from the September 3 issue of ESPN The Magazine.