Everyone Loves A Cinderella Team.
By Matt DeLucia
In a little over twenty-four hours from now, the National Football League will be crowning a new champion. Who’s it going to be? That depends on Sunday and who wants it more. So it’s either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Arizona Cardinals who will be hoisting the Lombardi trophy.
Now if you go by most of the chatter on the Internet, the Cardinals should be winners. As they are the fan favorite from the majority of polls seen on the net. And why shouldn’t they be, everyone loves a Cinderella team. But the talk on the networks (ESPN, CBS, and Fox) is all Pittsburgh.
And they deserve it. Their defense is out of this world. Stopping opposing offenses for the majority of the season. But let’s face reality, have they seen an offense like this before now. Not this season, and not from a team that’s as hot as Arizona is right now. The Cardinals have been on fire since entering the play-offs.
And it’s funny since most people thought they’d never get by the Falcons. But they did and then it was Carolina’s time to derail the pretenders from the NFC West. Oops, I guess someone forgot to tell “Zona” they were suppose to lose again. Then they mighty Eagles stepped up and the entire population of Pennsylvania was going crazy. Dreaming of a Super Bowl with both of their teams.
Oops, darn it again! We forgot to tell Arizona they were suppose to keel over and die in the NFC Championship game. They didn’t just lay down and play dead. They became the NFC Champions and have earned the right to play in the biggest game of their lives. And play they will, they’ll play their hearts out and lay it all out on the line.
But in the end will it be enough. No one knows that answer currently. Arizona’s quarterback Kurt Warner has been in this position before, with the St. Louis Rams in the earlier part of this decade. But as far as they are concerned they are a team without much playoff experience. Sure they have Sean Morey, Rob Hood and head coach Ken Whisenhunt.
All of whom have prior playoff experience, but that’s it. For most of this team and it’s core of young players, it’s their first taste. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They have no prior knowledge of what it’s like to make it this far and come up short. Not knowing what it’s like to raise a Lombardi trophy may be a great thing.
It makes the Cardinals more determined to achieve it, to feel it, to live through that moment. Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves, in order to relish in that winning moment. You first have to play the game, and of course come out victorious. So here’s to both the Steelers and Cardinals on their quest of greatness.
Good luck to you both. Give it your all, leave nothing behind. Walk away proud as you are the chosen one’s. Given the chance to play for the supremacy of the NFL in front of the entire world. One will give it their all and come up short (Pittsburgh) and the other (Cardinals)will thrive in the moment. The moment that lasts a lifetime, well until next years Super Bowl that is.
Super Bowl Prediction: Arizona 30 – Pittsburgh 27