Three teams – and three of the NFL’s highest-profile quarterbacks – have represented the AFC in the past seven Super Bowls, a trend that can continue Sunday at Heinz Field with a victory by Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Don’t expect the New York Jets to be intimidated.
The sixth-seeded Jets have gotten through Peyton Manning and Tom Brady to punch a ticket to their second straight AFC championship game, leaving Roethlisberger’s Steelers as the last obstacle to their first Super Bowl appearance in 42 years.
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The Packers and the Bears first met in 1921, when the Bears were the Staleys, the N.F.L. was the A.P.F.A., and F. Scott Fitzgerald was 25 years old. A trainload of 300 Packers fans, joined by a brass band in woodsman costumes (the Cheeseheads came later), traveled to Chicago to watch the 20-0 loss. Pete Stinchcomb opened the scoring with a 45-yard touchdown, then Pard Pearce set up a second score with that pinnacle of 1920s innovation, a forward pass, to Dutch Sternaman.
“After several wallops at the line Pard Pierce finally bucked through for a touchdown on a quarterback plunge,” read a newspaper account of the game. Oddly enough, the Bears used the same series of plays against the Seahawks last Sunday.
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