Once again, an underdog from Arizona will be on the national stage.
While the Arizona Cardinals share the same primary color of John McCain and the Republican Party, they hope to have a better result than the political maverick.
The Cardinals will face the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII Sunday, eager to win not only a Super Bowl championship, but some respect around the league as well.
Despite their incredible playoff run, the Cards are still seven-point underdogs for the big game Sunday, a role that they have become quite familiar with.
Facing the Atlanta Falcons at home, Arizona was an underdog to one of the league's most surprising teams in a very unexpected playoff matchup.
Experts speculated that the Cardinal defense wouldn't be able to stop Michael Turner and the Atlanta ground game, even with the support of a home crowd.
However, Arizona held Turner to 42 rushing yards and forced three turnovers, including Antrel Rolle's 27-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown that proved to be the difference in the game.
After defeating the Falcons, the Cardinals would travel to the dreaded East Coast, where they were 0-5 during the season, to face the Carolina Panthers.
Not surprisingly, the NFC West Champions were listed as underdogs, but by a much bigger margin against the 12-4 Panthers.
But the Cardinals would prove resilient once again, forcing six turnovers in an annihilation of heavily-favored Carolina 33-13 that shocked the NFL.
Coming off of a road victory against the Super Bowl XLII Champion New York Giants, the Philadelphia Eagles would travel to Glendale to play Arizona for the NFC Championship.
Once again, Coach Ken Whisenhunt's team was expected to lose.
Yet, the "never say die" Cardinals continued to impress, taking a 24-6 lead over the Eagles into halftime.
Then, it began to look like the wheels were finally coming off of Arizona's playoff bandwagon when Philadelphia stormed back to take a 25-24 early in the fourth quarter.
However, quarterback Kurt Warner stepped up when his team needed him most, leading the Cardinals offense 72 yards down the field on 14 plays.
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