..... Darren Sharper, who made no secret that this was the matchup he wanted -- a revenge game against his former team with a berth in Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 at Dolphin Stadium in Miami on the line.

Sharper wasn't available for comment after the Vikings polished off the Cowboys, but he made it clear Saturday night and Sunday morning that he was looking forward to reuniting with the Vikings, who let him get away in free agency after he spent the previous four years in Minnesota.

"You know who I want; you know who I want, " he said repeatedly, grinning slyly.

"It would add a little bit to it, a little more excitement. You know, I'll be familiar with a lot of faces across the football field. But we'll see, " Sharper said Sunday morning. "You can say who you'd like to play, but at the end of the day, you're going to play whoever shows up. And you're going to try to beat whoever shows up, because they're in our way to get to where we want to go."

Sharper also will get to face quarterback Brett Favre, a longtime former teammate and former rival. They played together for eight years with the Green Bay Packers before Sharper moved on to the Vikings.

And now they're both trying to return to the Super Bowl for the first time in 12 years.

"It's funny how it can transpire that we have a chance to meet each other to go to the Super Bowl, " Sharper said. "I had a chance to talk to him when he was thinking about going to Minnesota, and I told him, 'Listen, if you go there, you guys have a Super Bowl-caliber team. You've got all the pieces in place.'

"So if we do face off, I might have to renege on my statement........