With the Seahawks out, who are you rooting for in the NFC title game?

It's been two years since the Seahawks cleaned out their lockers by mid-January, but now local fans have to watch the final three contests of the NFL playoffs without any skin in the game.

BY ERIC MANDEL

Jan 21, 2016, 2:19 PM Updated: 3:08 pm

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710 ESPN Seattle's Mike Salk is surprised at the amount of Seahawks fans rooting for Arizona. (AP)

(AP)

It’s been two years since the Seahawks cleaned out their lockers by mid-January, but that’s the case this year, leaving local fans have to watch the final three contests of the NFL playoffs without any skin in the game.

To make matters worse on the NFC’s side, two of Seattle’s biggest rivals remain. One, the Carolina Panthers, has a quarterback who dances after nearly every play but also hands touchdown balls to kids. The other, the Arizona Cardinals, is a division rival full of veterans and is led by one of the most love-him-or-hate-him coaches in NFL history.

Thus the question: Who will you be rooting for?

Brock Huard of 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Brock and Salk” said that before Seattle’s loss to the Panthers in the divisional round last Sunday, he’d expected to be rooting for the Panthers because he likes their style of play, coach Ron Rivera and middle linebacker Luke Kuechly.

Then the loss actually happened.

“There’s no way I can root for them. I can’t,” Huard said, adding that he also likes Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald, Carson Palmer and his own former teammate Dwight Freeney, all of whom are older players. “It feels like this now or never (for Arizona)… They’ve got to do it now, versus Carolina. I don’t know if I want to give that crew that kind of momentum.”

Mike Salk, on the other hand, views Cardinals’ coach Bruce Arians as Seattle’s arch-nemesis. He also thinks the pressure and fame that comes with winning a Super Bowl could be the worst thing for Carolina QB Cam Newton and the Panthers.

“Cam, right now, he’s laser focused, but if you put Cam in a situation where he’s now won the Super Bowl and all the accolades that are going to come to him, maybe he’ll handle it great, but to me that would be the perfect thing for the Seahawks,” he said.

To Salk’s chagrin, fans who texted in said they were rooting for Arizona by a wide margin.

“I’ve never been so furious with this audience in my life,” Salk said.

To hear the conversation, listen to this podcast from Thursday’s “Brock and Salk” show.

If this photo is to believed, the Seahawks equipment staff might also be pulling for the Cardinals.