It's a phenomenon in sports that seems to be only getting worse year after year. Overhyping and sensationalizing every event to death is apparently the media's new favorite game. The Super Bowl ended less than 24 hours ago and many are already calling it the greatest of all time, but I guess I didn't get that memo.

In all honesty, it turned out to be quite a game, certainly better than I would have expected, and a fairly thrilling finish to boot, but the best ever? I mean... really? I'm simply not buying it. How soon do we forget just last year? Super Bowl XLII had David vs. Goliath in larger terms than this year's version as the undefeated Patriots tried to finish out destiny and go 19-0. Instead, the Giants stopped them with 35 seconds left when they scored the go ahead touchdown, and just in case we forgot, that drive had an even more spectacular play than last night's game winner could manage as well.

For those of you that have watched more than just the 2 most recent Super Bowls, you might even remember a couple that actually came down to the last play of the game, such as Adam Vinatieri taking down the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI as time expired. Perhaps Mike Jones of the Rams tackling Tennessee's Kevin Dyson at the one yard line to prevent the potential tying score in Super Bowl XXXIV? Of course my fellow Buffalo fans can't forget a little Super Bowl known as XXV when Scott Norwood's 47 yard attempt went wide right and cost the Bills a 22-20 win as time ran out. All those games were great finished, and the games themselves were arguably better than the one we witnessed last night.

In reality, the first 29 minutes or so of Super Bowl XLIII were pretty mundane with the Steelers up 10-7 and not a lot of action to get us to that point. Of course, things picked up when James Harrison picked off Kurt Warner and rumbled 100 yards to end the half with a Pittsburgh touchdown, giving the Steelers a 17-7 lead. The Steelers pushed it to 20-7 in the third quarter as penalty after penalty aided their march down the field. At this point, it was starting to look like it would be the typical Pittsburgh pushes out to a sizable lead and sits on it win, which has become the norm for them lately. Larry Fitzgerald decided that wouldn't be so much fun though. He scored on two big plays sandwiched around a Pittsburgh safety and we were staring at a mostly unbelievable 23-20 lead for Arizona.

Ben Roethelisberger would quickly get to work on carving out his name in history however. Taking over at his own 22 with 2:37 left in the game, he carved apart the Arizona secondary, eventually finding Santonio Holmes in the corner of the end zone for the game winning score, with 35 seconds left on the clock, much like last year in fact. The 27-23 win gave Pittsburgh their 6th Super Bowl victory, more than any other team has managed, and there is a story there. There's a story in Big Ben making up for a poor performance despite winning Super Bowl XL. Larry Fitzgerald's incredible play throughout the playoffs and especially in the Super Bowl make another great story, as does Kurt Warner's endless ability to put up huge numbers in the biggest game of them all, despite maybe not managing to win them.

Endless great stories came out of last night's game, but to think the game itself was something so much more than all of them seems far too short sighted for me. As I already mentioned, the first half was forgettable right up until the end of it. Little has been discussed about the ridiculous number of penalties that marred the action throughout the game, not to mention the numerous replays and subsequent over turns needed to correct the original calls. The fact of the matter is that up until the middle of the 4th quarter, Super Bowl XLIII really just wasn't all that entertaining. By most accounts, even the commercials were pretty lacking throughout the night.

I'm not sure when the trend started, but somewhere along the line, the national media has decided that every year something has to be bigger, better, faster than that which came before it. Sooner or later, truly great games and moments are going to be forgotten amongst all the hype of our instant gratification world, and that's a sad thought to have. Hopefully you enjoyed last night's game and the highly entertaining ending it provided, just do me a favor and keep in mind that it's neither the first, nor last time you'll see something of it's type.

Random Side Notes from Super Bowl XLIII:
- I've heard multiple interviews from the MVP of the game, Santonio Holmes already. Most of them included statements similar to "I just have to thank God for letting me be so great". Let's hope God taught Santonio a little humbleness along the way too. He had a great game, it doesn't make him a great player just yet though.
- I'm sure I'm not alone, but two thoughts were running through my head while Joe Namath carried the Lombardi trophy towards the stage. First, I was kind of hoping he'd be so drunk that he'd fumble it half way there in the midst of all the Pittsburgh players. Second, I really wanted him to stop along the way and tell the trophy how bad he wanted to kiss it and just lay one on it... instead he opted to kiss Dick LeBeau.
- NBC had a good group amongst it's pregame folks including recent retirees in Mike Holmgren and Tony Dungy... but seriously? Matt Millen!??! What on Earth would that guy know about winning a Super Bowl anyways?
- Do you think we'll ever see a not so "safe" act at halftime again or are those days forever gone? Personally, I watched Wipeout on ABC instead of "The Boss". I couldn't take Stevie VanZandt's backup vocals for more than 3 seconds.
- I was dead tired all day today, but staying up to watch the hour long episode of The Office after the game proved well worth it. I couldn't stop cracking up at Dwight.

It still doesn’t sound quite right, but the Arizona Cardinals are taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday in Super Bowl XLIII. The Cardinals came into the playoffs as the number four seed in the NFC by way of an easy division championship. Many fans and writers felt as if they didn’t even deserve to make the playoffs when they qualified. Few people gave them a chance in the Wild Card round against Atlanta, even less gave them a chance in the Divisional round at Carolina, and just about everyone (including me) picked the Eagles to knock them off in the NFC Championship. One thing is for sure heading into Sunday; the Cardinals deserve to be there and will put up a good fight against the Steelers.


Before the season even started, the Cardinals were in the news for their decision to go with Kurt Warner at QB instead of their first round draft pick from USC, Matt Leinart. It was a gutsy call by Coach Ken Wisenhunt, but one he felt he had to make in order to win more games. Looking back, it seems to have been the right decision. The Cardinals started out 2-0 with wins over San Francisco and Miami, and then lost the next two games on the East Coast to Washington and New York.

Arizona returned home to face the 4-0 Buffalo Bills. The Cardinals trashed the Bills 41-17 and essentially exposed them as frauds to the rest of the league, sending Buffalo into a tailspin that would last all season. They then got a big win at home against Dallas when they blocked a punt in overtime to win the game. Heading into the bye at 4-2, fans in Arizona were optimistic.

Coming out of the break, Arizona lost a tough game at Carolina, which moved their East Cost record to 0-3. Some would say it was a trend, but the Cardinals ended up proving that theory wrong when it counted the most. The Cards then won their next three games against division opponents which ran their record to 7-3 and 4-0 in the division. It was at this point that almost everybody could see the division was theirs to lose.



Arizona lost a very close game at home to the eventual NFC East Champion New York Giants, then had to travel East on a short week to face Philadelphia for a Thanksgiving Day match-up. They played terrible in that game, losing 48-20. They returned home the following week and overpowered another NFC West team, the Rams, to clinch the NFC West and ensure the fans of at least one home playoff game.

With the last three games essentially being meaningless, Arizona played like it in two of those games. They fell to Minnesota 35-14 and allowed Tarvaris Jackson to throw for a career high four touchdowns. Arizona then traveled east again and moved their East Coast record to 0-5 as they were completely overpowered by the New England Patriots. The Cardinals came home in the final week to beat Seattle, which allowed them to finish the regular season at 9-7 and a perfect 6-0 in the division.

Kurt Warner had an excellent season stat wise throwing for 4583 yards, 30 touchdowns, and finishing the regular season with a QB Rating of 96.9. Arizona didn’t run the ball nearly as much as they passed it, so Edgerrin James finished the season with only 514 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns. Rookie Tim Hightower took over the rushing duties mid-season and finished with 399 yards and 10 touchdowns. Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald cemented himself as one of the best in the league with 96 receptions, 1431 yards, and 12 touchdowns. Closely following him was teammate Anquan Boldin, who had 89 receptions, 1038 yards, and 11 touchdowns. Boldin’s numbers are even more impressive if you consider the fact that he missed time after being carted off the field against the Jets earlier in the season. As an overall unit, the Cardinals finished fourth in scoring (26.7), fourth in overall yards (365.8), and second in passing yards (292.1).


The defense has held their own and gained momentum during the post-season. They are led by Karlos Dansby, Antrel Rolle, Adrian Wilson, Bertrand Berry, Roderick Hood, and rookie Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. The defense combined had 31 sacks, 20 fumbles, 13 interceptions, and 2 touchdowns. Their league ranks aren’t quite as impressive as the offense or nearly as impressive as Pittsburgh’s defense. The Cards finished the season 28th in points (26.6), 19th in yards (331.5), 22nd in passing yard (221.2), and 16th in rushing yards (110.2).

Prediction: Pittsburgh 37, Arizona 17. I tried my hardest to not involve personal bias in my pick and I think the final score reflects that. It's pretty simple, I don't think Arizona is good enough to hang with Pittsburgh. I think the key to Kurt Warner's success is having time in the pocket and I don't think the Steelers defense will give him an ounce of that time. Combine that with a lack of running game, and I don't see this game even being close.

On the flip side of our AFC Championship recap, a bad side of writing is being proven completely wrong after writing an article earlier in the week. This was the case in my NFC Championship preview as I predicted the Eagles would hammer away Arizona 27-10. Barring a missed two point conversion, I almost nailed the Philly score on the dot but I completely underestimated the Arizona offense.

Arizona came out of the gates flying high in this game and completely took Philadelphia by storm. They marched right down the field on the opening drive and capped off a nine play drive with the first of three Larry Fitzgerald touchdowns. Fitzgerald cemented himself as the best wide receiver in the league with another amazing performance. He finished the day with 9 receptions, 152 yards, and 3 touchdowns.

The Eagles tried to keep up but failed to do so in the first half and went into the locker room at halftime down 24-6. Donovan McNabb tried his best to will his team to victory in the 2nd half with two touchdown passes to tight end Brent Celek in the 3rd quarter to bring the score to 24-19. McNabb continued his hot play in the 4th quarter with a highlight reel touchdown to rookie DeSean Jackson, who bobbled the ball all the way into the end zone to give Philly the lead 25-24.

Arizona’s offense, which had been non-existent in the 3rd quarter, finally came back to life and marched right down the field to take the lead. The Cardinals capped the drive off with an 8 yard touchdown pass from Kurt Warner to Tim Hightower and then got the 2 point conversion with a pass to Ben Patrick to make the score 32-25. The Eagles had one final shot to tie the game, and seemed like they were well on their way until the drive came to a screeching half around mid-field. With 4th down and the season on the line, McNabb’s pass to Kevin Curtis fell incomplete, and so Arizona advanced to Super Bowl XLIII for the first time in franchise history.

It goes without saying that many football fans didn’t give the Cardinals a chance to make it out of the first round, let alone take the NFC crown, so as one of those writers I have to give credit where credit is due. The Cardinals will have their hands full with Pittsburgh’s number one defense but they definitely have a shot to take it all.

Look for our Super Bowl XLIII preview coming next week on D&S Sports and stay tuned for plenty more sports articles coming this week.