The Arizona Cardinals entered the playoffs channeling the likes of Rodney Dangerfield, who got no respect. Las Vegas bookies placed 40-1 odds on the Cardinals winning the Super Bowl.
But much like last year's New York Giants or an upstart, first-term senator announcing two years ago that he would run for president, the Cards have proved one thing: Never rule out the little guy.
After being dismissed as hopeless losers, the Cards now bask in a media frenzy and tap into a phenomenon embedded in the nation's psyche. It's rooting for the underdog, the all-things-are-possible dream.
The love of an underdog is "hard-wired into the American soul, maybe the human soul," said Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University.
The United States has no history of dukes and peasants. It's a place where the people are created equal and where six-decade losers can meet on the field with the seven-time Super Bowl Steelers.
The underdog Cards now play for the man just handed a pink slip, the girl never asked to a prom and the fans in bitterly cold places like Cleveland who hold onto slivers of hope that maybe some day they can be champions, too.
It's a storyline that never grows old.
The tale of the shepherd boy with a sling shot who brought down a giant has been told for centuries.
Children are weaned on The Little Engine That Could.
And sportscaster Al Michaels' "Do you believe in miracles?" line still brings goose bumps nearly three decades after the U.S. hockey team brought the mighty Soviets to their knees.
No silver spoon
Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 Olympic hockey team, said that it is "easy to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth and be successful."
The beauty, Eruzione said, is in succeeding when it's not expected.
The reason is simple, he said.
All of us, at some point, are told we aren't big enough, not good enough, not fast enough.
The Cardinals, with a storied underdog pedigree, have heard it all.
In December, sports analysts pegged the team as the weakest in the playoffs. The Cards' opponents were favored in every postseason game.
The team's leader, quarterback Kurt Warner, could probably carry the underdog banner all by himself.
Many believed the Hall of Fame contender came to the desert in 2005 to fade away after his glory years in St. Louis.
The team has had just two winning seasons since moving to Arizona in 1988 - and that counts this year's run.
Founded in 1898, the team is the oldest operating NFL franchise, and, until now, was among six teams never to play in a Super Bowl.
In all of sports, only baseball's curse-ridden Chicago Cubs, at 100 years and counting, have had a worse streak of bad luck.
Trash talk inspires
Cardinals players repeatedly have said the trash talk only inspires them. And, in each playoff game, they proved it.
"It's just fuel for our fire," said Adrian Wilson, whose eight years with the Cardinals make him the veteran of this season's roster.
Eruzione buys that. The only things underdogs must believe in are themselves and their team, the hockey legend said.
"We weren't concerned about the Soviets or the Swedes. We were confident in our system," he said. "You're all in this together."
If his words ring familiar, it's strikingly close to the Cardinals' "We do this together" mantra, which the team launched this season.
Outside support
In Tampa, players and fans should find that residents there have some affinity for the red birds.
The region hosting this year's Super Bowl has seen recent sports success: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in 2003, the Tampa hockey team won the Stanley Cup in 2004 and the Tampa Bay Rays played in the World Series this past fall.
Still, decades of futility preceded the glory. The Bucs hold an NFL record for the longest losing streak: 26 games.
St. Petersburg resident Billy Beattie advised Arizona fans to enjoy the moment: "You never know when it's going to come around again."
The Cardinals weren't on his list of likely champions weeks ago, but Beattie has changed his mind.
"I'm not picking against them anymore," he said.
Still, naysayers abound.
The Steelers were favored by 7 points when Valley resident Phil Cisneros recently walked into the sports book at the Orleans casino in Las Vegas. The Florida-bound season-ticket holder said he savors those odds.
"That's right where they want to be," Cisneros said of his beloved Cards. "When you're the underdog and then prove people wrong, it's that much more of a victory."
He and his wife roasted for years in the bleachers of the team's former home at Sun Devil Stadium, much like Cleveland fans weathered brutal cold on the shores of Lake Erie to support their Browns.
Matt McMahon, whose late father was one of the original members of the Browns' "Dawg Pound," said the Cardinals give hope that "in my lifetime," the Browns may make a Super Bowl, too.
On Sunday, McMahon will cheer for the Cardinals, in part because they are the underdogs, but as a Clevelander, "you can't root for the Steelers anyway," he said.
Or can we?
Loving winners
Americans may love a Cinderella story, but the reality is that Americans love a winner, too, said Thompson, the pop-culture guru from Syracuse.
An underdog by definition is likely to lose.
Thompson predicts Super Bowl XLIII won't come close to touching the 97.5 million viewers who tuned into last year's game in Glendale to watch two powerhouses, the undefeated New England Patriots and the New York Giants.
The Cardinals just aren't that well known, Thompson said.
Then again, he added, few people going to the Lake Placid Olympics thought one way or the other about the U.S. hockey team.
There's nothing like a good poll to both get the pulse of the nation and stir up some fun tête-à-tête. Harris Interactive, one of market research's big guns, sought to find out who was television's favorite personality and the results are in--number one goes to NBC's late-night pitchman Jay Leno.
