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As great as this postseason promises to be, it still is without its two star actors, its two leading parts.

Neither Patriots quarterback Tom Brady nor Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is part of the Excellent Eight, a participant in the anticipated divisional playoffs this weekend.

For the first time since 2002 — six postseasons ago — the divisional playoffs are lacking the quarterback that led the Patriots to three Super Bowl titles and the quarterback that led the Colts to one Super Bowl title.

The playoffs without those two is like winter without snow. It’s still cold, but something is missing. This time it’s the two biggest stars in the game.

Of course there is one familiar face. Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is back in the divisional playoffs for the seventh time in nine years. Seventh time in nine years! And Philadelphia fans still don’t appreciate McNabb?

Ask them how beloved McNabb would be in Tampa, Minnesota or Chicago, where at least one of those cities, if not all, would virtually give up a U.S. Senate seat to get McNabb.

But these divisional playoffs have no Brady, no Manning. And not only are they gone, but so is the possibility of an all-Manning Super Bowl, when Peyton would battle his little brother Eli, the Giants quarterback.

It’s a new divisonal playoff world without all-world quarterbacks.

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