The historic angle for the Super Bowl that Tampa Bay will host in a couple of week is probably not as compelling as most. The Arizona Cardinals improbably won the NFC Championship 32-25 over the Philadelphia Eagles. It's the first Super Bowl for the long-suffering Cardinals, who won their last NFL championship in 1947 — against the Philadelphia Eagles. Other than the Chicago Cubs, no other professional sports franchise has gone longer between titles than the Cardinals.
Arizona will play the storied Pittsburgh Steelers, who beat the Baltimore Ravens 23-14 in 25-degree Steel City cold and light snow flurries.
The Super Bowl will pit the flashy, pass-happy offense of the Cardinals — which dominated the NFC-best Eagles defense for most of the game — against the more complete Steelers, who were the No. 1-ranked defense in all the NFL.
This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2009.