Super Bowl 43

It's been a long time since I actually cared who won the National Football League Championship (since the Bills were last in it, I suppose). This year is really no different except insofar as the matchup is between two teams that, when I was a kid, were perpetual doormats. So much so, that when the Steelers actually became a good, no, great team in the mid 70's, it struck me as miraculous as the sudden rise of the New York Mets in 1969. Those teams of Franco Harris, Mean Joe Greene and Jack Lambert built a tradition for winning in the steel city that has been more or less constant ever since.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, were a different story. They were bad in the late sixties when I started following football, and they've mostly been bad ever since, even as they moved from St. Louis to Arizona. The exception was the couple of years of "Air Coryell" when Jim Hart was flinging passes to Jackie Smith and Mel Gray, and handing the ball to Terry Metcalf.

I'd kind of like to see the Cardinals win the Super Bowl just because they are such massive underdogs (as I believe they've been for all of their playoff games so far this year). But, on the other hand, it almost seems like their history is against them, and they are doomed to fall short. It also bugs me a little to think that they might win the big one before the Buffalo Bills do (and the Bills have at least a more balanced record of success and failure over the years). Oh well, I just hope it's an entertaining game. Who are you pulling for (post picks in the comments)?