Wow … Sunday was a great day for the NFL. Not only were both of those games highly entertaining to watch but the outcomes set up a very intriguing back story to the Super Bowl (with this intermittent week, it’s always better when there’s a natural back story than the media having to make one up). On one side, we have the Pittsburgh Steelers making it to their seventh Super Bowl in franchise history – only the Cowboys have been to more Super Bowls. On the other side, we have the Arizona Cardinals going to their first Super Bowl in the team’s history. The Steelers made it this far with the smash-mouth defense that has become a staple in Pittsburgh, while the Cards are riding what may go down in history as the best string of games put together by a receiver in NFL playoff history. With such conflicting styles, which team is going to come out on top in Super Bowl XLIII?

Every single round of the NFC playoffs I’ve predicted that the Cardinals will lose. Like many of the analysts on ESPN and in the blogosphere, I said the same thing each week when the Cards played the Falcons, the Panther, and the Eagles: “There’s no way in hell that Arizona has a chance.” When I saw this matchup against the Steelers, I made the same claim. That’s why I’m making the logical pick and going with Arizona to upset Pittsburgh and win the Super Bowl. (It’s called learning from your mistakes folks.)

The Cardinals have a couple of things going for them other than this rather superstitious assertion. Like Rosie O’Donnell’s biggest weakness is a wad of fried dough stuffed with caramel chunks, chocolate chips, fudge, and melted american cheese (if that doesn’t stop you from moving for at least three days, I don’t know what will); the Cardinals can not do anything when the temperature dips below 40 degrees. The weather in Tampa this time of year averages in the low 50’s, plenty warm enough for Kurt Warner and that offense to be effective – if it rains, though, that’s a different story entirely.

So, in short, the warm weather is one thing that the Cards have going in their favor against the Steelers. The Arizona defense should be able to contain the Steelers’ offense as well. Pittsburgh had the 22nd ranked offense this season; the teams which Arizona has beat to get here ranked 6th, 10th, and 9th respectively. So the Cardinals will have to rely on their offense to win the game – this creates another great aspect to this game: both teams need to rely on their strengths to win the game. Neither team can really exploit the other’s weakness. The game will be determined between Pittburgh’s #1 ranked pass defense and Arizona’s explosive air attack (and how great is it going to be to watch Troy Polamalu stick with Larry Fitzgerald, that’s the stuff of legend). I also want to add to Arizona’s advantages that Anquan Boldin, who has gotten lost in all of Fitzgerald’s heroics, will re-emerge and have a big game on Super Bowl Sunday.

Now on to other matters. In one of my last posts I complained that the Giants had to play the Eagles instead of the Cardinals. I still stand by my belief that the Eagles were the tougher opponent of the two for the Giants because, as I said, the Cardinals are a completely different team in cold weather. Therefore, it was not fair that the Giants fought so hard for the #1 seed, only to draw a tougher matchup than the #2 seed did in the divisional round. I hate to complain like this unless I have an alternate plan to solve the dilemma. I was talking with one of my buddies yesterday and we came up with the perfect idea that not only solves this problem (it happened to the Titans also this year; they drew the Ravens instead of the Chargers), but this solution also makes the NFL season more interesting overall.

We decided that the NFL should realign the four divisions in each conference into two mega-divisions. Each team still plays their six games against rival teams, but there are no inter-conference games. The NFC teams just play other NFC teams and AFC teams only play AFC teams. If my math is right, then every team in each conference would get to play every other team in their conference except for two. The four division winners (2 from each conference) get a bye in the playoffs and the other eight wild card spots go to the teams with the best records. Since there are no inter-conference games in this format, the best teams from each division make it to the playoffs. Barring injuries, this would solve the dilemma of having better wild card teams than division winners. It would also add interest to the Super Bowl because it would be the one game to determine which of the conferences is best.

Can you tell that I’m still bitter from the Giants loss? Anyway, I am looking forward to this Super Bowl and I thank God every day that the Eagles did not make it. (How many NFC Championship Game losses is that for McNabb and Reid now, like twenty-seven?) Now if we can only get Goodell to reformat the league and replay the playoffs until the Giants made it to the Super Bowl, I can finally be at peace.