SUPER BOWL \ Notebook

Nice schedule: Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin began his NFL coaching career as an assistant coach under Tony Dungy with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and won a Super Bowl ring with the Bucs as part of Jon Gruden’s staff six years ago.

But there’s been little he could draw from Tampa Bay’s preparation for the NFL title to help the Steelers get ready to face the Cardinals because there was only one week — instead of the usual two — between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl in January 2003.

“There was a lot of hustle and bustle, if you will,” Tomlin said. “The two-week schedule, I think, worked in our favor in terms of creating a little normalcy.”

In addition to being able to install the game plan and maintain their customary practice schedule in Pittsburgh last week, Tomlin said the Steelers should benefit from being the “visiting” team because Pittsburgh’s sessions with the media will follow daily interviews with the Cardinals.

“That’s allowed us to pretty much maintain a pretty normal schedule in terms of how we approach our business here this week,” Tomlin said.

Associated Press