The Pittsburgh Steelers have signified success in the Super Bowl era with their stable ownership, brilliant coaching and throwback style. A victory today will give them a record sixth Super Bowl title and they are six-and-a-half point favorites to get it against the Arizona Cardinals.
Say what?
The Cardinals, a dynasty that has defined dysfunction as far back as the 1950s, are playing for the NFL championship?
PHOTO: AFP
If it’s easy to believe the Steelers would be back in the big game four years after winning in their last appearance, it’s just as difficult — nearly impossible, actually — to believe the Cardinals will provide the opposition.
It’s a classic yin and yang setup. The defensively miserly Steelers against the offensively potent Cardinals. The team with the proud history against the club with the forgettable past.
Doormat versus dynasty.
As if any of that matters now.
“Legacies are something you kind of worry about after the season,” Steelers All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu said.
The Steelers are trying to live up to a tradition of excellence established by the Chuck Noll-coached 1970s teams, nicknamed the Steel Curtain, and carried on through the Bill Cowher years. It is not something they can ignore, even if their coach, Mike Tomlin, has been on the job for only two years and has few ties to Noll or Cowher.
Indeed, when they look around Raymond James Stadium today and see all those yellow towels being waved in the stands, the players will readily accept that extra burden every Steeler has carried proudly for decades.
The Steelers won the Super Bowl in 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979 and 2005, tied for the most with Dallas and San Francisco.
But just making the playoffs, let alone the title game, was something the Cardinals could only have dreamed of. Since moving to Arizona in 1988, they’ve had two winning seasons. In 1997, they beat Dallas for the team’s second playoff victory. Ever.
The other came in the 1947 NFL championship game and the Cardinals didn’t even host a playoff contest again until this month.
They beat Atlanta, Carolina and Philadelphia, all as underdogs, to surpass their all-time playoff victory total — and shockingly get into the Super Bowl.
A wonderful story, with only one acceptable ending for the Cardinals.
“Nobody remembers the Super Bowl loser,” defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said. “I don’t believe in losing. We are definitely the underdogs. We all play with the underdog mentality. Once we got in the playoffs and we realized we’re going to be the underdogs no matter what or who we played, we thought we would shock the world. One more step.”
The Cardinal most responsible for getting the team to click is coach Ken Whisenhunt, who was the offensive coordinator for the Steelers during their last Super Bowl run. He was passed over for Tomlin two years ago, making for yet another juicy storyline.
“I’m sure coach Whis will have some insight into what we do,” said Ben Roethlisberger, who was the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl when he led Pittsburgh past Seattle.
And some extra motivation?
“I had a great mentor in coach Cowher as far as how you handle a team and how you deal with a lot of the things that go with it,” Whisenhunt said. “It’s just been a collection of those things that we used as a model to go forward with this team. There are other ways to be successful in this league, but I think that we all feel very strongly about doing it the way that we are.”
Which, in some aspects, is the Steelers way. And how better to begin that climb from doormat to dynasty?
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