Steelers to play Cardinals again

PITTSBURGH (AP) — You can’t call this Tampa II.

Six months after meeting in the Super Bowl, the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers begin the preseason the way they ended last season by playing each other.

Just don’t refer to it as a rematch of the Super Bowl in Tampa, not when Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes, Larry Fitzgerald and Kurt Warner will be on the bench tonight for at least three quarters and maybe longer.

“Most of the guys that played a lot in that game probably won’t play much at all in this game,” Warner said. “That’s more for league hype than it is anything else. It doesn’t really matter until the real season kicks off.”

No, exhibition games are for trying out the rookies, testing new offensive and defensive alignments and sorting out the roster, not for renewing any grudges.

As Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend said, the Super Bowl was played an eon ago by NFL standards, given the constant player turnover.

“It’s just another game,” Townsend said of one of only several NFL preseason games in which one team will fly nearly cross-country to play another. “The Super Bowl is gone and we won it, so we really don’t care about the rematch.”

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin didn’t bother to get out the Super Bowl tapes for review, saying what happened on Feb. 1 has no effect on shaping a team for the new season.

“The big thing is to come out and play with tempo and speed,” he said. “You run some core stuff you know they’re familiar with. ... We’ll put some base football in all three phases, something guys are capable of executing because that’s what we want to see them do. We want to see them execute at a high level.”

Tomlin and Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt plan to play their starters only a couple series, which means backups will be all over the field by the end of the first quarter. Both teams have full rosters, and coaches normally try to play nearly everyone who’s healthy.

“That’s a different team that won the Super Bowl and we’re a different team. I think there’s going to be a lot of excitement from being there and playing in that stadium, but other than ‘Revenge of the Super Bowl,’ I don’t think so,” Whisenhunt said.

The Steelers are relatively thin along the offensive line due to injuries to center Justin Hartwig (toe) and right guard Darnell Stapleton (knee surgery), the backup center. Former rookie free agent Doug Legursky is expected to start, and former Cardinals center Alan Stepanovich may play despite signing only this week.

Cardinals first-round pick Beanie Wells, the former Ohio State running back, isn’t expected to play after missing more than a week of camp with a sprained right ankle.

For Whisenhunt and several of his assistants, including former Steelers assistant head coach Russ Grimm, and players such as cornerback Bryant McFadden and linebacker Clark Haggans, this is their first visit to Heinz Field since leaving the Steelers. McFadden played in the Super Bowl for Pittsburgh before signing with Arizona.