The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl. Arizona Cardinals….Super Bowl – same sentence. Not a typo. Sure…they are facing the Pittsburgh Steelers who were for the most part, expected to be there – But we all should agree that the headline has got to be all about Arizona though…

So in order to max out Cardinal time lets go ahead and get the reaction from Philly out of the way. It will center around the non-call at the end of the game…as happy as I am to see the Cards in the SB…I do give the non-call credence…while I am covering the losers side of the story – lets get the Ravens reaction out of the way too…

Old Faithful Kurt Warner just knows how to win Conference Championship games. 3-0 all time. How did he do it? With a little help from Larry Fitzgerald. Warner’s numbers – 21 of 28, 279 yards, 4 TDs….three to Fitzgerald who had 9 grabs for 152 yards. The Cards dominated the entire first half before Philly made a game of it in the second half – even at one point taking the lead and holding it until there was around three minutes left in the game…Until Warners 4th TD to Tim Hightower.  Arizona reacts….

Anyways…you know we arent really about recaps here at S&F so Ill give you the recap link here…I just wanted to bring up Warner because of what this victory means to his all time status in the NFL. I wont shill for him any more….Ill just ask you the question:

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Like I said…the Steelers are going to the Super Bowl as well. Troy Polamalu is a beast…but I think everyone had a gut feeling that when the Titans were eliminated (and maybe some before) the Steelers would be the AFC rep in Tampa. Reaction from Pittsburgh here…

The Cards were 60-1 Preseason to win the Super Bowl, 50-1 when the playoffs began, and now find themselves the underdog again….but not quite as much of a longshot. The early line favors Pittsburgh as a TD favorite.

Some feel as though Hell has frozen over…maybe. No matter the previews will get tiresome over the next two weeks, so enjoy the early dose before you get completely worn out.

There were other sports this past weekend…On the PGA Tour – Masters Champ Zach Johnson won the Sony Open in Hawaii, Andy Roddick is playing well as Tennis first Major is underway in Australia, Lance Armstrong started his warmups for TdF ‘09….and as we discussed – we will start working NHL coverage in as we prepare to say goodbye to football pretty soon.

NBA Action over the weekend was an afterthought considering the major contests (ORL @ LAL  , CLE @ NO ) took place on Friday…but here are yesterdays scores…count on GITC to recap the happenings later today.

Back to the NFL for a few minutes to talk coaches…Here is the recap to the carousel to the best of my memory…Links for the latest are provided where applicable….read as follows

TEAM – NEW COACH (OLD COACH)

RAMS – Spagnulo (Linehan / Haslett)
BRONCOS – McDaniel (Shanahan)
JETS -Ryan (Mangini)
BROWNS- Mangini (Crennel)
RAIDERS – TBD (Kiffin / Cable)
CHIEFS – All Rumors so Far
TAMPA – Morris (Gruden)
INDY – Caldwell (Dungy)
LIONS – Scwartz (Marinelli)
NINERS – Singletary (Nolan)
SEAHAWKS – Mora Jr. (Holmgren)

If you are scoring at home…thats a full 1/3(+) of the NFL that has a new coach…including 3 out of four teams in the AFC West.

As much as I hate to do it to Miz…Here’s the obligatory Cubs baseball link of the day involving Kosuke Fukudome (Mikey Wishes) Felix Pie being dealt to Baltimore.

If all goes according to plan, we will debut NCAA Basketball Coverage this week….just incase we do not – it was a huge weekend – particularly a huge Saturday for College Hoops….here are a few details as to not spoil the big debut.

GITC spoiled State Farm’s fun (evil blogger reference) to the point where the leaked LeBron commercial was anti -climactic for most people…even to the point where State Farm blessed True Hoop’s release of the commercial on Saturday. By Sunday morning it was on You Tube as well. State Farm joined in the fun later in the day.

Speaking of video, I looked for a TW speech from Washington DC but have yet to find one – unless I do a screen grab myself from SportsCenter…but it doesnt look to be too big of a deal. In fact – watching SC, it was the fist time I have ever seen TW struggle with speaking.

I try not to miss links, but I am on the west coast…count on more sports, analysis, and recaps to come throughout the day…thanks for spending part of your morning here at Sparty and Friends.

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