NFL Super Bowl Report No. 1, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009
TAMPA — Some thoughts from Day 1 on Florida’s remarkable West Coast:
1) So what’s the real reason for the incredible improvement of the Arizona Cardinals? Was it the re-invigorated play of the young-again Kurt Warner? Was it the brilliance of Larry Fitzgerald (who might be the best all-around athlete in the NFL)? Was it a defence that has come around during the past five weeks?
Yes and no. While all of those things had a lot to do with it, it is, ultimately, the coaching of Ken Whisenhunt. A former Steelers assistant who took the job in Arizona just as Pittsburgh was hiring Mike Tomlin, Whisenhunt brought along Pittsburgh assistant Russ Grimm to be his assistant head coach and another Steelers assistant, Kevin Spencer to run his special teams.
The Cards are now headed to their first Super Bowl. The Steelers are going for the seventh time in 43 years. Although he denies it, Whisenhunt has brought a little Steeler tradition to the desert.
2) Depending on where you go in Las Vegas, the Pittsburgh Steelers are either 6 ½ or seven-point favourites in next Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIII. Ask the Arizona Cardinals and that’s exactly what they want to hear. Let’s not pull any punches. This year the 9-7 Cardinals, a team that lost 35-14 at home a month ago to the less-than-brilliant Minnesota Vikings, were a mediocre football team that caught fire at exactly the right moment.
According to Cards head coach Ken Whisenhunt, “I think that it’s not a surprise that we would be an underdog. This is a very good football team that we are going against; one that a number of the members of this organization are familiar with. Obviously, there will not be a lot of people singing our praises. Hopefully, that will keep us focused.”
The Cards might get as much energy from the oddsmakers as they get from Tampa’s abundance of strip clubs over the next week.
3) Do uniform colours matter? Guess we’ll find out in Super Bowl XLIII. On Thursday, the Arizona Cardinals, the official home team in Tampa, chose to wear their home red uniforms in the big game.
That means the Steelers will wear their white road uniforms, just as they did when they defeated Seattle for the NFL title three years ago in Detroit. In the 2006 Super Bowl, Pittsburgh had the option of wearing their black home jerseys, but decided to wear white after playing and winning three road playoff games in as many weeks.
This will be only the third time in their seven Super Bowls the Steelers have worn white. They’ve never lost in their white jerseys.
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