Steelers soaking it all in for now

PITTSBURGH - Steelers linebacker Clark Haggans was relaxing at home, enjoying a few days off before returning to practice for the Super Bowl.

Then a commercial touting The Rolling Stones and their upcoming performance in Detroit came on the air.

"They're talking about the Seahawks vs. the Steelers and I'm saying, 'Hey, I play for that team,'" Haggans said Thursday. "It's a great feeling, it's kind of surreal. You can sit back and everything's kind of memorable."

Yes, everything is a little surreal for the Steelers, who practiced for the first time Thursday since beating Denver in the AFC championship game. For many, it was still hard to believe they made it this far.

Only one player on the team, veteran cornerback Willie Williams, was on the last Steelers team to make it to the title game, in 1996.

"Like coach (Bill Cowher) said, there's not too many people who remember who loses the Super Bowl," kicker Jeff Reed said. "The last few years, everybody thinks of the Patriots."

New England set the bar pretty high, winning three of the past four Super Bowls. But the Patriots were eliminated early in the playoffs, and the Steelers won three in a row on the road to make it to the big game Feb. 5.

Ben Roethlisberger is a big reason why. At 23, he will be the second-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl - 213 days older than Hall of Famer Dan Marino was in 1985 when the Dolphins made it this far.

But Marino lost in his only Super Bowl appearance and has given Roethlisberger some words of advice.

"He said, 'Listen, enjoy this. You're young,'" Roethlisberger said. "On the one hand, enjoy it and have a good time, but take it serious enough that you want to win it, because you never know if it's going to happen again."