It is the peak of professional football. It’s chicken wings, cold beer, cheering and yelling and…did I mention the chicken wings? That’s right. It’s Super Bowl time. It’s certainly not a holiday but it very well ought to be.

This year it’s the Arizona Cardinals squaring off against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII. And even though I haven’t watched a single game all year and am an admitted Miami Dolphins fan, I can’t wait to see at least a quarter of the game.

My concern this year is the lack of advertising for the big game. There seems to be less advertising and publicity of the event this year. Or maybe I haven’t been looking in the right places. The Food Channel, where my TV is fixed, doesn’t seem to cover the Super Bowl as much as I’d like. But then again, I doubt the Super Bowl coverage will show me how to make chili in a bread bowl either. (It’s all about priorities, folks.) Not enough is being done to get me pumped up for the game.

This year, I would like to regain the excitement for the game of football I once had. And this year’s Super Bowl has all the ingredients to do it. We have the newcomers, the Arizona Cardinals, a team playing in relative obscurity for so many years, pitted against an old hand at Super Bowl visits and wins in the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I always enjoy seeing a new team making it to the big show. Seeing them take the field on the NFL’s biggest stage is one of those rare moments where I can see highly-paid (some would say overpaid) athletes recognize the immensity of their accomplishment. A bit of humility strikes them as they realize that so very few people get to reach the pinnacle of their profession. It is the kind of honor few jobs in this world can afford. I hope I see that from the Arizona Cardinals this year. That’s when I think I’ll start to enjoy football again.

So, I guess what I’m hoping to see in this year’s Super Bowl is not a good game that comes down to a single field goal like Super Bowl XXV when Buffalo’s Scott Norwood’s field goal went wide right (What ever happened to that guy anyway?) or Kevin Dyson of the Tennessee Titans coming up one yard short in Super Bowl XXXIV against the St. Louis Rams. I just hope to be ready for some football! Oh, and I hope to have a big ole plate of chicken wings in my lap.

In the end, I hope the Steelers win the game but I hope the Cardinals win back my love for the game of football.