Merry Christmas boys and girls! Or, more accurately, welcome to Pittsburgh’s favorite holiday. It doesn’t come every year. But it does visit us a lot more than every other city.

A few morning notes – if the Steelers win, don’t plan on hurrying just about anywhere afterwards to party. Large parts of the South Side, Oakland and Downtown will all be closed to traffic.

I thought that I’d fill the blog with as many goodies as I could locate for this morning’s tailgate. Today, we have a little WIWUT, we Sleep With the Enemy, a playlist of some things to occupy your mind and nerves until kickoff and we start with my final pre-kickoff thoughts.

There will be comments and commentary later – win or otherwise. But I will definitely not be live blogging. When I did it for the Ravens game, it shot my nerves. Now I have a new rule that I need to be paid if I’m going to write during a game. Before the game, though, has a calming effect.

Enjoy…

Sonny’s Side: Quick Hits

1. Even though the Steelers are still favored by a touchdown, there is an avalanche of people picking Arizona to win lately. I think part of that is the phenomenon that when you have two weeks to think about anything, you can talk yourself into it – and it’s a sexier pick for commentators to do so. I’m quite glad to see it, too.
2. Mike Tomlin is the coolest coach on the planet, by far. Let me say that now, in case I hate him by the end of the day.
3. Each week, I’ve chosen a PMNTBV (Player Most Needed To Be Valuable) and, as much as it is cliché, I’m going with Ben Roethlisberger. I believe the Steelers D will be able to slow the Cardinals. Over the past week, the media hype machine has built Arizona’s D up into some sort of opportunistic, monster defense. They’re not! During the regular season, it was in the bottom half of the league and gave the 28^th most points in the NFL. The Steelers offense should move down the field like they’re playing the Bengals or Browns – three or four purely offensive touchdown drives and a lot of help changing the field position. Clearly the defense got them here – it’s time for the offense to go win one.
4. I like the white uniforms a lot.

Super Bowl WIWUT

Paul Lukas’ Uni Watch – I’m a bit of a uniforms geek myself and glad to see the Steelers have a Uni Advantage.

Our friends at Mondesi’s House – Who would play all of the big parts in Super Bowl XLIII: The Movie?

Dave Dameshek – The best and worst Pittsburgh players uniforms to own.

PG— No. 7 has been a big game QB; but not a Biggest Game QB yet.

PG -- Celebs love the Super Bowl

Non-Steeler link: Walt Harris is up for the Seneca Valley coaching job. Um, wouldn’t he be a nice little upgrade as Pitt’s offensive coordinator if every put their egos aside?

Sleeping With the Enemy

Dan Bickley of The Arizona Republic talks about how neither safety Adrian Wilson or Troy Polamalu play it “safe”.

Woody High’s Steve Breaston always wanted to be a Super Bowl star – for the Steelers.

Cards have one thing the Steelers don’t – cheerleaders. Not that I critique cheerleaders or anything, but if I’m designing outfits, I go with the mini uniforms too.

Today in the Arizona Republic, they declare that the Cardinals aren’t the same-old-Cardinals anymore. We’ll see about that.

Raising ‘Zona is a very good fan blog for a team that hasn’t had much to write home about. There prediction a Cards win is a little predictable, though.

The Playlist

The best way to start this is a link to 47 Steelers Fight songs on the WDVE website. My faves? The updated Steelers Polka is the best and the new Puhlahmalu is nice to have.

President Obama on the Steelers.

Which predictions are the best? Why not listen to some puppets?

And, finally, my new favorite fan video. Here’s a look from the seats during Renegade at the Steelers-Cowboys regular season game. It was SO loud.