If recent history tells us anything, though, it's that you never know what teams will look like in the Super Bowl.
Keep this in mind: The Steelers were the Cardinals. Literally — the teams merged for one season in 1944 because neither could field a full team in the military-draft-depleted NFL. But it's more than that.
Jamie Peachey
A scene from Steeler Nation, the kind of guy who makes the Steelers White Trash America's team.
Jamie Peachey
Jamie Peachey
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Five Super Bowl victories have a way of erasing bad memories, but Pittsburgh went without a winning season for its first 10 years in the league. The Steelers were blown out in their first playoff game in 1947, and didn't get another playoff appearance for 25 years. The Steelers had zero playoff victories in their first 39 years of existence. That's almost as pathetic as the Cardinals.
The media and their fans keep calling the Steelers among the NFL's most storied franchises. And they are. But even if they win this Super Bowl, they'd still have only half as many championships as the Green Bay Packers. They'd need three more rings to have as many as the Chicago Bears, two more to have as many as the Cleveland Browns, or one more to have as many as the New York Giants.
Let's leave it at this: The Cardinals have been underdogs in Las Vegas for the past three playoff games. They're underdogs again against the Steelers in the Super Bowl. But they could win. They could be the Giants of this season (every storied franchise must start somewhere).
And their fans could go a long way toward helping them win the biggest one ever. If they can grow a pair.