Great day of football yesterday. Sure, our Eagles lost, but they got more post-season play than any Eagles fans expected until perhaps the final moments of week 17.

And now, how can you NOT root for Kurt “The Phoenix” Warner? With his merry band of fractured-faced receivers (Boldin), uni-kidneyed safeties (Rogers-Cromartie) and human panthers (Fitzgerald), the Cardinals looked unstoppable. They were unstoppable. Unless someone drugged the Eagles’ defense. Well now, there’s a thought, because from the looks of the play there…

Back to more reasons why the Cardinals are a compelling team in the Super Bowl:

1)

2) The Steelers just won it 3 years ago. The Cardinals have not tasted glory in 61 years.
3) Ken Wisenhunt and Russ Grimm used to be offensive assistants to the Steelers. Until Mike Tomlin was hired. That’s like Chad Pennington trying to knock the Jets out of playoff contention, but much, much better.
4) They were the toast of the pundit community as the worst team in the playoffs, but they have played almost flawless football post-season. When it counts.

To be sure, the Steelers are a great team. Roethlisberger manages to make decisions that no other mortal with as concussed a head as he could make. They are a hard-hitting squad, putting it all on the line as if they were renting their bodies for games on a one-off basis. This, too, makes them a team you can get behind. Almost as if they could use their sheer physical strength and will to win contests.

But did they blow it all on the Ravens in last night’s slugfest? Perhaps.

And what’s wrong with a little sentimentality? Warner is reminiscent of the lead character in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. The old, weathered fisherman who has not had a catch in almost 3 months could be Warner and his middling Cardinals team during the regular season. When the old man finally goes out to the Gulf to break his streak of bad luck, he hauls in the biggest catch of his life - only to have the 18-foot Marlin ravaged by sharks as he tries to haul it home.

Here’s to hoping Warner bags the catch - and brings it home intact.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Fantoo Blog Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.