now, on to the super bowl!

here is a short recap from sunday's conference championship games in the nfl.

although i had wanted the philadelphia eagles to advance, the arizona cardinals defeated them 32-25. they now face the pittsburgh steelers, who beat the baltimore ravens 23-14.

pictured above are the two players who i consider the most valuable to their teams' victory.

at the left is steelers safety troy polamalu. he intercepted a pass with about four and a half minutes left in the game. then he ran it back 40 yards for a touchdown. that put pittsburgh definitely ahead.

at the right is cardinals wide receiver larry fitzgerald. he caught six passes in the first two quarters of the game. three of them went for touchdowns and arizona lead 24-6 at halftime. he went on to catch a total of nine passed for 152 yards.

i wanted to see philadelphia and pittsburgh advance because they are two of my favorite teams. since they won't, i'm going to cheer for the steelers.

i'm not sad that the eagles didn't advance. i won't be said if the cardinals win the super bowl.

here's an interesting sidelight:

during the 1944 nfl season, because so many players were in the military, both teams merged operations and played as one. they were called card-pitt, but went 0-10.

in 1945, both teams went their separate ways.

(picture borrowed from deadspin.com)