Pittsburgh Steelers Football Team

A clear-thinking quarterback might prefer seeing Pittsburgh's top-ranked defense on videotape than in person. And where would the Steelers like to see their defense? On the sideline, naturally. Because if their defensive players are on the home sideline in Sunday's divisional game against San Diego, milling around with their helmets in hand, it means Pittsburgh's offense is doing its job.

The temperature is expected to be in the mid-20s for today's divisional playoff game at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field. For the San Diego Chargers, however, the forecast calls for hot, hot, hot. Hot read after hot read, that is. Those are the adjustments a quarterback makes at the line of scrimmage when he gets a look at the defense. He sees an opportunity, designates the "hot" receiver, and hits him with a short pass or screen to neutralize a blitz.

As the end of their season crunched underneath their feet, their faces draped in ski caps, their curses bathed in smoke, the San Diego Chargers were serenaded by the cruelest of songs. From the Heinz Field loudspeakers it blared. From the lips of the black-swathed Pittsburgh Steelers fans it sang. Into the Chargers' heads it taunted. "I'm A Believer." Yep, gotcha again, the Chargers once again making their fans giddy, only to leave them gasping.

Nothing in this city's rich football heritage will ever replace the Immaculate Reception, the nickname given Franco Harris' great catch to win a 1972 AFC playoff game against the Oakland Raiders in the final seconds. Now the Steelers have an interception that deserves a title too.

On the surface, this Super Bowl is a super blowout. It's steel versus sandstone. Road graders versus roadrunners. Iron City versus Sun City. But the Arizona Cardinals are capable of beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII. And, if they play the way they did Sunday, they will.

After four quarters of calling plays Sunday in the biggest football game of his life, Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley made his most meaningful call of the day. He speed-dialed his dad. "I always call him when I'm driving in, and I always call him right after," the 41-year-old Haley said Monday, a day after the Cardinals beat Philadelphia to secure a spot in their first Super Bowl. "He just gives me his synopsis of it. He's just a great football person.

The fairy tale is that, if he wins Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals quarterback has promised to buy his family a puppy. The reality show is that the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to whip the dog out of him. The fairy tale is that, while dining with his family every Friday night before home games, the Arizona Cardinals quarterback picks up a stranger's bill. The reality show is that the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to cash him out.

The Cardinals have had a lot of success in the playoffs running trick plays, or even just misdirections. Two that come to mind were long passes from Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald. The first, at Carolina, was a fake pitch that froze the defense, followed by a bomb to Fitzgerald, who outleaped the two defenders sandwiching him and made the catch. Then, in the NFC championship game against Philadelphia, Warner pitched to J.J. Arrington, who threw it back to him.

In his annual Super Bowl news conference Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would take a hard look at bringing the Super Bowl back to Los Angeles in 2016 -- the 50th anniversary of the game -- whether or not the city has a team. The first Super Bowl was held in L.A., at the Coliseum, and 2016 would also mark the 70th anniversary of the 1946 L.A. Rams, the first integrated major professional sports team. L.A.

Minutes after he threw the winning touchdown pass in Super Bowl XLIII, Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said he put the ball where only Santonio Holmes -- and not the three Arizona defenders surrounding him -- could catch it. But in the retelling Monday, Roethlisberger's account grew even more gripping. He said on the "Late Show With David Letterman" that he thought the pass would be intercepted.