The Pittsburgh Steelers have tied the Dallas Cowboys with their 8th Super Bowl appearance and plan to add another Lombardi Trophy to the mantel. Troy Polamalu and the Steel Curtain led Pittsburgh into the big game for the third time in six years, holding off Rex Ryan and those big-talkin’ Jets 24-19 in the AFC championship game Sunday. The black-and-gold already have won six Super Bowl rings, more than any franchise, but they’ll be going against a team that can hold its own in the history department.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is going for his third title in six years, after sitting out the first four games as punishment for his behavior in a small Georgia college town over the offseason. Having apologized and insisted that he’s a changed man, Big Ben hopes to move him into rarified territory with a third Super Bowl ring. The only quarterbacks who have won more are Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, each with four. Mike Tomlin, at the age of 38, is the youngest head coach to lead two teams to the Super Bowl. Before that, he was the youngest head coach to win a Superbowl.

The league's smallest city is going to its biggest game. Despite being the the first sixth-seeded team in the NFC to advance to the Super Bowl, oddsmakers have installed the Packer, a 2-point favorite over the AFC champion Steelers, seeded No. 2. Green Bay is known as Titletown USA, but the Packers haven’t won it all since 1997.

The Packers count a dozen NFL titles in all, including the first two Super Bowls in 1967 and ’68 with Vince Lombardi stalking the sideline. Aaron Rodgers, who spent his first three seasons hidden in the deep shadow of former Packers great Brett Favre, has emerged in his three seasons since, and is using his first playoff run to push himself into the same sentence with the league's quarterback elites. Packers coach Mike McCarthy is getting his first chance to coach in the Super Bowl -- against his hometown team.