the cardinals played in the super bowl on february 1, 2009.
when did the cardinals play in the super bowl?
february 1 , 2009
on january 7, 2007, cowher resigned from coaching the steelers, citing a need to spend more time with his family. he did not use the term "retire", leaving open a possible return to the nfl as coach of another team. a three-man committee consisting of art rooney ii, dan rooney, and kevin colbert was set up to conduct interviews for the head coaching vacancy. the candidates interviewed included: offensive coordinator ken whisenhunt, offensive line coach russ grimm, former offensive coordinator chan gailey, minnesota vikings defensive coordinator mike tomlin, and chicago bears defensive coordinator ron rivera. on january 22, 2007, mike tomlin was announced as cowher's successor as head coach. tomlin is the first african-american to be named head coach of the pittsburgh steelers in its 75-year history. tomlin became the third consecutive steelers head coach to go to the super bowl, equaling the dallas cowboys (tom landry, jimmy johnson and barry switzer) in this achievement. he was named the motorola 2008 coach of the year. on february 1, 2009, tomlin led the steelers to their second super bowl of this decade, and went on to win 27–23 against the arizona cardinals. at age 36, he was the youngest head coach to ever win the super bowl, and he is only the second african-american coach to ever win the super bowl (tony dungy was the first). the 2010 season made tomlin the only coach to reach the super bowl twice before the age of 40. tomlin led the team to his second super bowl (super bowl xlv) on february 6, 2011. however, the steelers were defeated in their eighth super bowl appearance by the green bay packers by the score of 31–25. the steelers recorded their 400th victory in 2012 after defeating the washington redskins.
pittsburgh steelers
the panthers became the first no. 3 seed to advance to the super bowl since the league expanded to a 12-team playoff format in 1990. in doing so, they were also the first division winner to advance to the league championship after playing "three" playoff games. all other instances up to this point where teams advanced to the super bowl after playing all three rounds of the playoffs were wild card teams in super bowls xv, xx, xxvii, xxxii, xxxiv, and xxxv. prior to super bowl xvii, the miami dolphins and washington redskins both won three playoff games to reach the super bowl, but that came during the strike-shortened 1982 season when the regular season was reduced to nine games and the playoffs were expanded to 16 teams, with no teams receiving first-round byes. since then, there have been six instances of teams advancing to the super bowl after playing three playoff games: the pittsburgh steelers in super bowl xl as the no. 6 seeded team, the indianapolis colts in super bowl xli as the no. 3 seed, the new york giants in super bowl xlii as the no. 5 seed, the arizona cardinals in super bowl xliii as the no. 4 seed, the green bay packers in super bowl xlv as the no. 6 seed, and again the new york giants in super bowl xlvi as the no. 4 seed. the colts, cardinals, and the giants in 2011, like the panthers, were division winners in those years (although in the colts case, they played the no. 4 seeded new england patriots in the afc championship that year, ensuring at least the second division winner to play three rounds to make it to the super bowl.), and all but the cardinals went on to win it all. the super bowl would mark the third game (out of four) of the playoffs in which carolina scored 29 points.
super bowl xxxviii