AFC, NFC title games have plenty of local flavor

This story was updated to include information on Seattle tight end Tony Moeaki.

While the Bears were essentially eliminated from the playoff picture by Thanksgiving, there remains a strong local influence in both of Sunday's conference championship games with a berth in Super Bowl 49 on Feb. 1 at stake.

The Indianapolis Colts have the most local connections, followed closely by the Green Bay Packers, while the Seattle Seahawks have the fewest.

Here's a glance at the players with local ties.

Indianapolis Colts

• Offensive left tackle Anthony Castonzo grew up in Hawthorn Woods and graduated from Lake Zurich High School. He was the Colts' first-round pick (22nd overall) in 2011 out of Boston College and has started 60 games in four seasons, including all 16 this season plus both playoff games.

• Tight end Coby Fleener grew up in Lemont and played at Joliet Catholic High School. His full first name is Jacoby, a name his mother picked out while watching a Washington game in which NFL O-lineman Joe Jacoby was playing. In the last two years, Fleener has caught 103 passes for 1,382 yards and 12 touchdowns.

• Pro Bowl cornerback Vontae Davis was a first-round pick (25th overall) by the Miami Dolphins out of Illinois in 2009. Davis has missed just one start in the last two seasons and intercepted 4 passes in 2014.

• Guard Hugh Thornton, who is on injured reserve with knee and shoulder injuries after starting eight games this season, was the Colts' third-round pick out of Illinois in 2013.

• Guard Lance Louis has taken over for Thornton and started seven games this season plus two playoff games. He started 28 games for the Bears in four years (2009-12) after they drafted him in the seventh round. Louis missed the 2013 season after he suffered a torn ACL late in 2012 on a blindside hit from then-Viking Jared Allen following a Jay Cutler interception.

• Linebacker Andy Studebaker was a sixth-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2008 out of Wheaton College. He was born in Congerville, Ill., and graduated from nearby Eureka High School, where President Ronald Reagan attended college.

Green Bay Packers

• Offensive right tackle Bryan Bulaga is from Crystal Lake and graduated from Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock. He was the Packers' first-round pick (23rd overall) in 2010 out of Iowa. After missing all of 2013 with a torn ACL, he came back to start 15 games this season. As a rookie, Bulaga moved into the starting lineup in Week 5 and became the youngest player (21 years, 322 days) ever to start in the Super Bowl.

• Outside linebacker-defensive end Julius Peppers played for the Bears for four years (2010-13) and had 38 of his 126 career sacks with Chicago. In his first season with Green Bay, Peppers had 7 sacks and 2 interceptions, both of which he returned for touchdowns, going 52 and 49 yards. Peppers also forced a crucial fumble last week in a win over the Cowboys.

• Backup quarterback Scott Tolzien is from Rolling Meadows and attended Fremd High School in Palatine. Signed by the San Francisco 49ers in 2010 after going undrafted out of Wisconsin, Tolzien started the first two games of his NFL career in 2013 when Aaron Rodgers was out with a fractured clavicle. He threw for 619 yards, the most in Packers history for a player in his first two starts, and the fourth-most in NFL history.

• Cornerback Tramon Williams is a cousin of Bears offensive right tackle Jordan Mills. He has missed one start in five years and has 27 interceptions in the last seven seasons.

New England Patriots

• Backup QB Jimmy Garoppolo, an Arlington Heights native and graduate of Rolling Meadows High School, was the Patriots' second-round draft pick (62nd overall) out of Eastern Illinois last year. As a senior at EIU, Garoppolo won the Walter Payton Award, which is given to the top player in FCS, after he threw for 5,050 yards and 53 touchdowns with 9 interceptions. In limited duty this season he had a 101.2 passer rating, completing 19 of 27 passes for 182 yards.

• Defensive end-outside linebacker Rob Ninkovich was born in Blue Island and moved to Lincoln Way, where he attended Lincoln Way East and Lincoln Way Central. He also played two years at Joliet Junior College before transferring to Purdue. He was cut twice by the Saints and once by the Dolphins before hooking on with the Patriots, where he has had exactly 8 sacks in each of the last three seasons.

• Backup tight end Michael Hoomanawanui was originally a fifth-round pick (132nd overall) of the St. Louis Rams out of Illinois, and he attended Bloomington Central High School. He has started 28 games in three seasons with the Patriots, including a career-high 12 in 2014.

• Another backup tight end, Steve Maneri, played in four games with the Bears in 2013. Backup safety Tavon Wilson was New England's second-round draft pick in 2012 out of Illinois. Another former Fighting Illini, 2013 seventh-round draft pick, defensive end Michael Buchanan, is on injured reserve. He's a graduate of Homewood-Flossmoor High School.

Seattle Seahawks

• Tight end Tony Moeaki was a star player at the University of Iowa and Wheaton Warrenville South High School. Now in his fifth NFL season, the 6-foot-3, 252-pound Wheaton native has 8 catches for 134 yards and 1 touchdown with the Seahawks as the team's third tight end. Drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2010, Moeaki is averaging 13.0 yards per catch in his career (88 catches, 1,143 yards).

• Defensive end Michael Bennett is the brother of Bears tight end Martellus Bennett and a player the Bears had interest in a year ago when he was an unrestricted agent. He re-upped in Seattle and has 24½ sacks over the last three seasons.

• Defensive tackle Landon Cohen, signed late in the season because of injuries. The NFL vagabond was with the Bears in 2013 and started three games, also because of injuries.

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