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Tomlin Staying Calm Amid Growing Hype

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 22, 2009

A trip to the Super Bowl is anything but routine, but Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is determined to maintain a sense of normalcy this week as Pittsburgh prepares to face Arizona in Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1.

Coaches spent Tuesday devising a game plan and began installing it during a practice Wednesday, the team's first since beating Baltimore in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.

Pittsburgh will practice today, Friday and have a light workout Saturday before departing for Tampa on Monday.

For Tomlin, everything is business as usual.

"I'm pretty good at it. I can trick myself," Tomlin said. "My wife says that I am pretty good at doing that. We are not playing the Super Bowl today. So there is no need for the hair to stand up on the back of my neck today. We are putting in a game plan. You need to be somewhat cerebral as you approach it that way."

Tomlin won't even allow a few seconds of euphoria to get in his way.

"If I had that mentality then that would mean that I didn't believe what I've said all year, and that is that we are capable of being where we are right now," Tomlin said. "I believed that then. I believed that now so I am not going to get enamored with where we are right now."

DRESSED FOR SUCCESS

The Cardinals, as the home team, chose to wear their red home jerseys in the Feb. 1 game.

That means the Steelers will wear their white road uniforms, just as they did when they defeated Seattle for the NFL title three years ago in Detroit. In Super Bowl XL, the Steelers had the option, but elected to wear white after playing and winning three road playoff games.

This will be the third time in their seven Super Bowls the Steelers will wear white. They also wore white while defeating Minnesota in Super Bowl IX.

Arizona is in the Super Bowl for the first time.

PROVING A POINT

Arizona is already a sizeable underdog, but the players don't care what anyone else thinks of their late-season success.

"Throughout the whole season we have just gotten better and better," OG Reggie Wells said. "Our preparation has gotten better and better, and our execution has gotten better and better.

"I know a lot of people are surprised with the success we have had and don't know how to react to it. We have earned everything we have gotten."

STAR-STUDDED COIN TOSS

Super Bowl winners John Elway, Lynn Swann and Roger Craig will take part in the coin toss for the Feb. 1 game at Raymond James Stadium.

Swann starred in title games for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s, Craig for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s, and Elway won consecutive Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos in the late 1990s.

Swann and Elway are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Another Hall of Famer, former New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath, will participate in the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy following the game. Namath led the Jets to an upset victory in Super Bowl III.

A Tribune staff, wire report

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