Conference Champion Matchups
The Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens are a notch closer to the Super Bowl. Over the weekend, the Eagles, who were written off more than once this season (and slipped into the playoffs with a less than stellar record of 9-6-1-) shocked the New York Giants and will square off against the Cardinals in the NFC championship next week. The Eagles blew out the Cards in the 13th week of the season, but Arizona is riding high after whipping up on the Carolina Panthers Saturday. The Steelers shut down the San Diego Chargers and will now represent the AFC in the conference championship against the Ravens next week.

Serena Wins
Serena Williams, who was visibly vexed by the chair umpire’s mistake during the Australian Open Sunday, pulled it together and defeated her opponent, Australian Samantha Stosur, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5. “I felt like I was going to win that second set,” Williams said.  “And then I hit a massive net cord and the guy didn’t call it. Even Sam knew it was a net cord. It was frustrating at that point. These types of things seem to happen to me a lot.” Williams was serving for the match at 6-5 and 30-30 in the second set when umpire Asitha Attigala of Sri Lanka missed the let call. Stosur broke Williams and then won the tiebreaker. “It was definitely tough conditions with the wind,” Williams said. “With that being said, I just made so many errors, and that was a little frustrating because I feel like I’ve been working hard and to come out and perform at the level I did, I wasn’t extremely happy.”

Star Receiver Ordered to Avoid Baby Mama. Star Cardinals wideout Larry Fitzgerald has been ordered to avoid any contact with the mother of his 11-month-old son after he allegedly beat her down and yanked her hair out, TMZ.com reports. Angela Nazario told police that she brought the couple’s son to visit Larry at his Phoenix home last October and an argument ensued. In legal papers filed in an Arizona court, Nazario claims that Fitzgerald attempted to “diffuse the situation” by raising his fist and challenging her to a play fight. Nazario responded by swinging at him and “may have hit his face,” she acknowledges in the documents. Fitzgerald turned from playful to enraged and pushed Nazario down to her knees, she alleges. He “grabbed me by my hair with both hands on the back of my head very, very hard and tossed me across the room,” she charges. “Later, when she tried to leave with her son, Nazario says Fitzgerald ‘grabbed the back of my neck and slammed me down on the marble floor … [I] was disoriented for awhile and could not get up. I remember he mumbled something about ‘that’s what happens when you try taking my son away from me,’” TMZ.com reports. “As she got in the car to leave she realized she had lost ‘chunks’ of hair.”

Black Athletes Exploited? On average, Black and White students arrive on campus with much different academic backgrounds and graduate at much different rates, according to a study by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Athletes’ experiences reflect those differences, and those differences affect the statistics for athletes as a whole, the study found. African-Americans are far better represented on the playing field than in the classroom, it shows. Only about 1.8 percent of White students were scholarship athletes, compared with 6.4 percent of Black students. Some schools’ athlete-student demographic differences were huge. For example, about a third of the Black students in Colorado’s 2002 freshman class were scholarship athletes, according to the Journal-Constitution. Read the rest of the findings here.

NFL player sidelined indefinitely after facial surgery. Cardinals’ wide receiver Anquan Boldin will sit out indefinitely following a surgeon’s operation on the fractured sinus he suffered last week. Jets’ safety Eric Smith, who injured Boldin in a helmet-to-helmet hit, meanwhile, is appealing his punishment after he was fined $50,000 and suspended for the violation. Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhut says the surgeon who operated on Boldin performed the same procedure on a hockey player who returned to the ice 10 days later.

Anquan Boldin’s pass defender is fined $50,000.

NFL receiver Anquan Boldin is recovering from a helmet-to-helmet hit that sidelined him in a Sunday game versus the New York Jets. The Arizona Cardinals’ Boldin was immobilized and carted off the field before being checked out for injuries at a hospital. Cardinals Coach Ken Whisenhunt wants the league to review the play for violations. Jets safety Eric Smith, who delivered the hit to Boldin, has been suspended for a game and fined $50,000 for the indiscretion. NCAA player Dante Love was temporarily paralyzed in a recent game and is recovering from an injury after a similar helmet-to-helmet collision.