by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: January 23, 2009   Last Updated: January 27, 2009

At the beginning of the 2008/2009 National Football League (NFL) season, the Pittsburgh Steelers were being acclaimed one of the bigger long shots to even make it to the Super Bowl, let alone to win it. Pittsburgh, in the regular season this year, had the toughest schedule of all of the NFL teams in the league. The Arizona Cardinals, however, were listed with the 8th easiest schedule, even considering they played San Francisco, Dallas, Philadelphia and the New York Giants, the defending Super Bowl Champions. Even though Kurt Warner is having a comeback season, Ben Roethlisberger has re-found his Super Bowl accuracy, and his uncanny ability to avoid sacks in dire situations.

With the quarterbacks controlling the offence, it is usually prudent to bet on the better of the two quarterbacks, assuming that both defensive lines are similar. Special teams and coaches make up the rest of the equation in figuring which team has the advantage over the other. Another quicker, easier way to judge who should win is to look at the Las Vegas odds, since the favourite wins most of the time when it comes to Super Bowls. Out of 22 Super Bowls where the favoured team was given a 7-point spread, the favourites won 17 times (better than 2/3rds of the time).

If the Super Bowl were to be judged solely on the single players involved, and not as teams, then they would be rather similar, and an extremely close, possibly last second field-goal win could be a possibility. However, in the NFL, the emphasis is on team, heart and dedication. And really big, strong and healthy men who have the requisite desire to accomplish career goals. When it comes to a team that plays as one, a team that is confident in each others' abilities and will work cohesively as a unit, the Dick Lebeau led defensive corps of the Steelers defines teamwork.

The Steelers are healthy and strong, with a good period of time to prepare for the game. However, the Cardinals are a banged up, injury riddled team, coming off of 4 consecutive hard-hitting, energy-sapping and emotionally-wringing games. They may have had two weeks rest, but with conditioning and training, there still is not adequate rehabilitation time for the hurt.

Unfortunately, if the Super Bowl were to be judged by the referees, then the winner will be the team that gets caught the fewer times retaliating for infractions made against them. When the Steelers won this years anomaly of a game, 11-10, the final play of the game was a legitimate touchdown, agreed

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