SUPER BOWL XL For Pittsburgh, Sunday's a day of rest

The Steelers will fly into Detroit today to get ready for the big game.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- While the Seattle Seahawks were flying into Detroit on Sunday, checking into their hotel and holding an evening news conference a week before the Super Bowl, the Pittsburgh Steelers were ...
Doing nothing.
Staying at home. Relaxing with friends and family. Remaining far away from the fuss of the Super Bowl, at least for one more day.
The decision to delay the Steelers' arrival until today, a day later than most Super Bowl teams, was based not only on Pittsburgh's proximity to Detroit but also coach Bill Cowher's desire to keep the work week as close to normal as possible -- though he said that's impossible.
"It's different," Cowher said. "It's not like any other game. The thing is to try and educate the players about what the day is like, what the week is like, and at the same time you try to enjoy the process. But you can't lose sight of the focus, you need to understand why you're there."
With no mandatory event scheduled until Tuesday morning's media day, Cowher didn't see any reason to have his players go to Detroit and sit around for two days before practicing. Cowher and several players will hold a brief news conference late this afternoon, as all teams do upon arrival at the Super Bowl site.
"There's no need to go in Sunday," Cowher said. "It's close."
Short flight
The Steelers' flight will last about 45 minutes, compared to Seattle's four-hour flight. But even if the flight had been longer, Cowher may have chosen to go in Monday -- after all, the Steelers didn't fly to Denver for the AFC championship game a weekend ago until the night before the game.
Cowher has tried throughout the Steelers' January-long road trip to keep the schedule as close to normal as possible, even as they traversed from Cincinnati to Indianapolis to Denver and, now, to Detroit.
That keep-it-the-same policy was reflected in his decision to have the Steelers wear their white road jerseys in the Super Bowl, even though they are designated as the home team.
"There are a lot of distractions that can be there," said Cowher, who last took the Steelers to the Super Bowl 10 years ago -- a 27-17 loss to Dallas in Tempe, Ariz. "It's become more of a production. It's a big production. It was big back then and it's big now. We still have to play a football game after they kick it off. At that point, we have to make sure we're prepared to play football."
Cowher's own logistical scramble comes next weekend, when all three of his daughters play varsity basketball games the day before the Super Bowl -- Meagan for Princeton University and Lauren and Lindsay for Pittsburgh's suburban Fox Chapel High School. All three plan to attend the Super Bowl.
But the off-week between the AFC championship game and the run-up to the Super Bowl allowed Cowher and his assistant coaches to draw up their game plan and introduce it to the players, meaning there will be less to do in the meeting rooms and on the practice field this week.
"We're just going about business and doing things," guard Alan Faneca said. "We're not sitting on where we are. We're trying to improve."
Same routine
Just as they did before going into Indianapolis and Denver, the Steelers plan to practice with fake crowd noise -- though it may not be as loud as it was when they set up 18 speakers inside their indoor practice building before the Colts game.
Still, as soon as they step off that plane this morning and are greeted by scores of photographers, the Steelers will know that this game is different.
"My buddy from college, James Cooper, called me last week and we sat there and talked for an hour or two," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. "The first 10 minutes all he kept saying was, 'You're going to the Super Bowl. Do you know you're going to the Super Bowl?' I said, 'I know.'
"It was bizarre because when you're a kid, you don't talk about playing in the national championship game or the AFC championship game, you talk about playing in the Super Bowl. That's when it kind of started sinking in, when I was talking to him. Every kid dreams of doing this and I'm getting an opportunity to live the dream."