Your Guide to This Year's Super Bowl

There are 5 sections to this Thought:

1. General information.

2. The Super Bowl Theory.

3. Why Steelers will win if you a Steelers fan and why the Cardinals will win if you are a Cardinal fan.

4. Trivia and little known facts. Even if you don't know much about football, throwing out one of the listed facts will make you look informed. For example "Did you know O.J. Simpson tossed the coin to start Super Bowl 27?"

5. Team Statistics.

1. General Information

It's Super Bowl XLIII (Super Bowl 43).
The date and time is February 1, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. EST.
The Teams playing are Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Arizona Cardinals.
The Cardinals will be the designated home team. The NFC champions are always the home team in odd numbered Super Bowls. The AFC champions are always the home team in even numbered Super Bowls.
The game is being player at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Stadium Capacity is 72,500.
The Winner is awarded The Lombardi Trophy.

Journey will perform during the pre-game show.
Jennifer Hudson will sing The Star-Spangled Banner.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be Halftime Entertainment.

Some of the halftime is in 3D. DreamWorks will premiere a 3D movie trailer for its upcoming feature film, "Monsters vs. Aliens," which comes to theaters on March 27th. In addition, there is a 60-second 3D SoBe Lifewater commercial marking the return of the ultra-hip SoBe lizards. Make sure you get your glasses. They are free at SoBe Lifewater retail displays at the following stores: Kroger, Ralphs, Frys, Safeway, Vons, Supervalu, Food Lion, A&P, Pathmark, Coburns, Fairway, Fresh Brands, Hy Vee, Nash Finch, Roundy's, Winn Dixie, K-Mart, Dollar General.

2. The Super Bowl Theory

The Super Bowl Theory holds that a victory by an NFC team or an original (pre-1970 merger) NFL team --the Browns, Colts, or Steelers-- point to a bullish market the following year. An AFC victory signals a bearish drop
in the market. The Super Bowl Theory has accurately forecasted the stock market 31 times.

3. Why Steelers will win if you a Steelers fan and why the Cardinals will win if you are a Cardinal fan.

If you are a Steelers fan, here is why they should win:

They have been there before.
Three years ago they won their 5th Super Bowl and 20 of the players from that teams are on the current squad, including their quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Their great defense and defenses are supposed to win Super Bowls.
The Steelers' overall defense was ranked #1 in the league for most of the season. They also have the league's second-best run defense.

Their blitz schemes.
Steelers lead by Defensive Player of the Year James Harrison should be able to generate enough pressure on Warner to limit his time and ability to find  Fitzgerald and his other receivers.

If you are a Cardinals fan, here is why they should win:

Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin
Fitzgerald already has a postseason record 419 receiving yards and that's before playing in the Super Bowl. Anquan Boldin is doing full practices so he should be ready to play. This is the best wide receiver pair in the NFL.

Kurt Warner.
He is a two-time NFL MVP & was named Super Bowl XXXIV MVP. His career completion percentage of 65.1% entering 2008 ranks #2 in NFL history. His career QB rating of 93.2 ranks #3 in NFL history. He is the fastest player in NFL history to reach 10,000 passing yards. Screens and crossing routes designed to pick off defenders in traffic has allowed Warner to take find relatively  wide-open receivers. Warner hanging on to the ball and keeping his poise when he gets hit. If Kurt has a great games, the Steelers are toast.

Cardinals coaching staff may have an edge.
Mike Tomlin (Steelers) and Ken Whisenhunt (Cardinals) are both second-year coaches. The edge is that Ken Whisenhunt and assistant head coach/offensive line coach Russ Grimm came to Arizona from Pittsburgh and were keys to the Steelers Super Bowl win three years ago. Four more coaches came from the Steelers including special teams coach Kevin Spencer. They know Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau's tendencies and schemes. They also know some of the personnel and those players' strengths and weaknesses. This could be big.

 

4. Trivia and little known facts.

The ten most watched television programs of all time are Super bowls.

It is expected that $10 billion will be bet legally and illegally on this year's Super Bowl. The Steelers are currently a 7-point favorite.

The NFL uses Roman Numerals to designate each Super Bowl since the NFL season extends over two calendar years.

No NFL team has ever played a Super Bowl on its home field.

The first Super Bowl trophy was actually awarded in Super Bowl V (after the merger of the AFL-NFL).

No Super Bowl game has ever gone into overtime.

No Super Bowl team has ever been shut out.

The San Francisco 49ers are a perfect 5-0 In Super Bowl appearances.

One out of every 12 people watching the game only does so to see the commercials.

On the Monday following the Super Bowl, an average of six percent of the workforce calls in sick.

In America, Super Bowl Sunday is second in food consumption behind only Thanksgiving Day.

How much food is gobbled down? How about an estimated 14,500 tons of chips, 4,000 tons of popcorn and 8 million pounds of guacamole? No wonder so many people call in sick the next day?

The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League all-stars game.

Supposedly no network footage exists of Super Bowl I. If you could come across a network video copy of the game, it would be worth millions of dollars.

Super Bowl XLIII will be broadcast in 232 Countries and territories.

Super Bowl XLIII is broadcast in 34 languages.

1.5 Million TV sets will be sold during the week leading up to Super Bowl.

In Super Bowl XXVII O.J. Simpson tossed the coin.

For the first time in team history (that is 61 years), the Cardinals have reached the Super Bowl.

5. Team Statistics.

Many people will say that these stats aren't quite fair because the Steelers played tougher teams this year. It turns out that the average winning percentage for the Cardinals opponent was 49%. The average winning percentage of the Steelers opponents was 53%. Not that much different! 

Team Statistics
	Steelers	Cardinals
TOTAL FIRST DOWNS	290	328
FIRST DOWNS (Rushing-passing-by penalty)	93 - 179 - 18 Total 290	72 - 231 - 25 Total is 328
THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS	92/224 or 41%	83/198 or 42%
FOURTH DOWN CONVERSIONS	3/12 or 25%	8/16 or 50%
TOTAL OFFENSIVE YARDS	4991	5852
OFFENSE (Plays-Average Yards)	1015 - 4.9	998 - 5.9
TOTAL RUSHING YARDS	1690	1178
RUSHING (Plays-Average Yards)	460 - 3.7	340 - 3.5
TOTAL PASSING YARDS	3301	4674
PASSING (Comp-Att-Int-Avg)	303 - 506 - 15 - 7.1	418 - 630 - 15 - 7.7
SACKS	51	31
FIELD GOALS	27/31 or 87%	25/28 or 89%
TOUCHDOWNS	38	51
(Rushing-Passing-Returns-Defensive)	16 - 19 - 0 - 3	14 - 31 - 1 - 5
TIME OF POSSESSION	31:41:00	30:10:00
TURNOVER RATIO	4	0