Cardinals win dress-up award

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) " Charley Johnson, Jim Hart, Neil Lomax, Jake Plummer, Bobby Joe Conrad, Sonny Randle, Larry Wilson, Jerry Stovall, Pat Fischer, Conrad Dobler, Dan Dierdorf, Terry Metcalf.

Joe Maddon was just getting started naming some of his favorite Cardinals of all time. The Tampa Bay Rays manager, who has a framed "No. 70" Arizona jersey hanging on the wall of his office, is ecstatic the team he's rooted for since 1963 is in the Super Bowl.

The appearance is especially sweet coming three months after he led the Rays' improbable run to the World Series, where the AL champions lost to the Philadelphia Phillies.

"I was a sick Cardinals football fan," said Maddon, a Hazelton, Pa., native who remembers the day he devoted himself to the Big Red, as well as the baseball Cardinals and NBA's Hawks, then located in St. Louis.

He and his father were leaving a White Sox-Yankees game in New York and stopped at a concession stand to purchase a hat. Maddon selected a navy blue Cardinals cap with a red insignia.

"At that moment I became a die-hard St. Louis fan," Maddon said. "It was simple as that."

The Cardinals shipped the prized jersey that hangs on Maddon's wall shortly after the manager was hired by Tampa Bay and revealed he had been a Cardinals fan for much of his life.

So what's more surprising, the Rays reaching the World Series or Arizona being in the NFL title game against the Pittsburgh Steelers?

"I'd say it's even more improbable that they did because people had recently talked about us getting to the point of being in the playoffs in the next couple of years," Maddon said. "I'd say to some extent the Cardinals are mentioned that way. But for them to get to the Super Bowl, I don't think that was really on anybody's radar screen."

Maddon, who lives in California during the offseason, had not planned to attend the Super Bowl. With the Cardinals here, though, the Rays hastily arranged to buy two tickets for the manager through the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Maddon hopes it's not the last big event on the horizon for his beloved teams. Asked if there was anything that could top Tampa Bay and Arizona competing for championships, he didn't hesitate.

"The Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Finals," Maddon said.

STEELERS HERITAGE: As the Pittsburgh Steelers seek to become the first team with six championships in the Super Bowl era, Troy Polamalu, their All-Pro safety, believes this team has a direct connection with the Steel Curtain teams that won four Super Bowls in six seasons during the 1970s.

"We're all tied to Jack Lambert," Polamalu said Monday, a reference to the Hall of Fame middle linebacker on those teams.

How?

Polamalu was a rookie with the Steelers in 2003, the last of the 10 seasons linebacker Jason Gildon was in Pittsburgh.

"It all ties together," he said. "I played with Jason Gildon. Jason Gildon was a teammate of someone who was a teammate of someone who was a teammate of someone who was a roommate of Jack Lambert."

LOVE THOSE CARDS: As a lifelong Arizona Cardinals fan, Jose Sanchez felt profound joy in watching his team land a spot in the Super Bowl after years of mediocrity. He ranks the moment alongside the birth of his first son.

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Sanchez said he would get into home games by scooping up tickets that had been discarded at halftime by fans frustrated with the Cardinals' play. At a rally Monday for the team, Sanchez dressed in all crimson and proudly displayed the tattoo across his chest that bears the name of his home state.

The Cardinals, long the league's doormat franchise with just one winning season in the last 24 years, earned their first playoff berth since 1998 and first divisional title since they won the NFC East in 1975.

The frustration of many failed seasons washed away during the NFC championship game that sent the Cardinals to the Super Bowl.

"It's like being a bum and then becoming a millionaire the next day," said Sanchez, a 29-year-old from Tempe who works as a manager for an auto glass company.

More than 1,000 fans, some carrying signs that read "Shock the World!" gathered at Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport to see off the Cardinals as they headed to Tampa for Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

NICE SCHEDULE: Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin began his NFL coaching career as an assistant coach under Tony Dungy with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and won a Super Bowl ring with the Bucs as part of Jon Gruden's staff six years ago.

But there's been little he could draw from Tampa Bay's preparation for the NFL title to help the Steelers get ready to face the Cardinals because there was only one week " instead of the usual two " between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl in January 2003.

"There was a lot of hustle and bustle, if you will," Tomlin said. "The two-week schedule, I think, worked in our favor in terms of creating a little normalcy."

In addition to being able to install the game plan and maintain their customary practice schedule in Pittsburgh last week, Tomlin said the Steelers should benefit from being the "visiting" team because Pittsburgh's sessions with the media will follow daily interviews with the Cardinals.

"That's allowed us to pretty much maintain a pretty normal schedule in terms of how we approach our business here this week," Tomlin said. "During the season we meet in the morning at 9 o'clock as a team and we kind of go from there. We intend to do the same thing here."

Cardinals media sessions on Wednesday and Thursday will begin at 8 a.m. EST. That's 6 a.m. back home in Phoenix. Steelers interviews begin at 11 a.m.

WATCH YOUR MONEY: New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees and Tampa Bay running back Warrick Dunn joined a group of high school students in playing "Financial Football," a computer-based game designed to educate teenagers about the importance of money management skills.

The players talked to the youngsters about their personal experiences, noting they would have benefited from such a program if it had been available to them during high school or college.

"Save your money, live within your means," Brees urged, adding that it's important to know how to handle money whether you're making minimum wage or millions.

"You look at the economic times today, it's tough for everybody," Dunn said. "If you can manage your money, you can get through those times."

The students were divided into two teams, with Brees leading the Cardinals and Dunn coaching the Steelers. The football is advanced by providing correct answers to multiple choice questions.

The game ended in a 7-7 tie.

Associated Press Writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.