Cinderella Team vs. Perennial Champs The time has finally come! On Sunday, February 1st, 2009 millions of football fans from around 232 countries will either attend or tune-in by way of television, webcast or radio to witness the Arizona Cardinals go head-to-head with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League’s (NFL) Super Bowl XLIII. Kickoff time for the NFL’s biggest game of the year will take place at 6:30 pm EST at the renowned Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida. While Super Bowl XLIII is only Arizona’s first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, it’s old hat for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers are decorated Super Bowl vets winning five of their previous six appearances, placing them on an elite list of teams along side the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys A month ago, no one was predicting that the Cardinals, with a regular season record of 9 wins and 7 losses, would become the eventual National Football Conference (NFC) winner. ThatLas Vegas odds-makers predicted the Cardinals as a 50 to 1 underdog at the start of the 2008/2009 football season underlines the Cinderella story of Arizona’s climb to the championship. The team seemed to ‘gel’ in the playoffs, defeating other apparently stronger teams in Atlanta and Philadelphia. The team’s ride to the Super Bowl has been on the arm of quarterback Kurt Warner. During the regular season, Arizona ranked fourth in total offense in the NFL, principally by way of the Cardinal’s passing attack, which ranked third overall. If Pittsburgh is going to win Sunday’s game, it will have to shut down Warner and his go-to receiver, Larry Fitzgerald. And, Pittsburgh could do just that. Over the course of the regular season, the team had a 12 win – 4 lossrecord and ranked first in defense in the NFL and first in defending against the pass. In terms of its offensive game, a balanced passing and rushing attack in games has been the norm, but the team relies principally on its defense...