Eerily Silent Super Bowl

TAMPA - Muted.

That's the word I've kept coming back to this week. The anticipation. The pomp. The parties. The matchup. The star power.

It's all been kinda ... eh ...

I've been to seven Super Bowls now and I never remember one where there was less conversation about the actual matchup. Why?

Blame it on the Cards.

A) People aren't familiar enough with their personnel. Name five guys on their defense, quick ... NBC's Al Michaels told me on Tuesday he's covered three Cardinals games in 23 years of broadcasting. 3.

B) They don't seem trustworthy. Given the way they closed the season and their 9-7 record, they give off a whiff of flukiness.

C) No, zero, zilch in terms of national following.

The Cardinals financial impact on this event has been massive. A man from Texas told me last night that the Eagles rented a hotel/restaurant area in Ybor City to serve as their home base for the week. That area was going to bank a ton of dough off the Philly fans who would have swarmed down to see an intrastate matchup. When the Cardinals won, the reservation went poof and the area lost out.

A merchandising guy I'm friends told me that, if the Cardinals win, his outfit will make tens of millions less than they would if the Steelers win. Cardinals stuff doesn't move.

Combine the Cardinals and the economy - which has been far more discussed this week than the game - and you have a perfect storm for a lower-case super bowl.

You can't get away from economy talk. The Commissioner's address on Friday was dominated by it. The NFLPA's address was the same thing. Lines are being drawn, folks. There's going to be a serious fight as the owners try to wrangle back money they agreed to give the players in 2006 with the current CBA and the players aren't going to give it back.

With that, the belt-tightening among the league and their teams has been palpable. Beyond the scaled-down or eliminated parties, jobs within the league are being slashed. And there's a feeling that, once this game's played, even more will go.

Even the halftime act, Bruce Springsteen, was talking about the economy and the mood of the nation this week, saying he hopes his act can spur some optimism for a country going through a hard time.

And while the effort to bring Bruce in began long before the country's economy tanked, he is the perfect entertainment choice. The hardest working man in rock 'n roll, glitz-free, free of high-tech tricks ... this super bowl needs Bruce. And it might not be on his set list, but the song that would capture what this week and the mood's been about is the last song on "Nebraska," called Reason to Believe.

At the end of every hard-earned day, people find some reason to believe.

- Tom E. Curran