TAMPA, Fla. – There will be plenty of personal feelings spilling out onto the field tonight when Ben Roethlsberger goes against his former offensive coordinator, Ken Whisenhunt, who in just two years has brought the Cardinals to the precipice of a championship.

The two worked together for three years – Big Ben’s first three in the NFL – and when Whisenhunt left Pittsburgh there were some hostile words spoken by the young quarterback.

“When he left, I didn’t know what to think,” Roethlisberger said. “I was young and kind of stupid at the time and made comments. I didn’t really feel it, it just came out at the top of my head.”

Since then, the two have talked and supposedly smoothed things over.

“I told him I almost felt abandoned,” Roethlisberger said. “Now I know that you’re in the league a couple years, you know that it’s a business. You know coaches leave and you know players leave, they do what is best for themselves and their family.

“At first I was probably a little hurt, I felt kind of betrayed that he just left us and abandoned us. Now I know that it wasn’t that at all.”

*

Cardinals owner Bill Bidwell said he misses the NFC East from the years when his team was based in St. Louis.

“I know where all the good steakhouses are in those cities,” Bidwell said.

*

Jeff Reed has visualized tonight in his head many times.

The Steelers kicker knows the Super Bowl could come down to him.

“Every kicker who says they don’t envision kicking the game-winner in the Super Bowl is lying,” Reed said. “As a kicker, that’s the way we get our name on the map. You visualize during the game, you visualize in bed, you visualize when you’re hanging out because this is what it’s all about.”

Like every kicker at the Super Bowl, Reed fielded plenty of questions about Adam Vinatieri this week, the ultimate kicking Super Bowl hero. But he knows the flip side is Scott Norwood, who has never lived down his miss in Super Bowl XXV.

“I’ve seen that so many times and it makes me sick,” Reed said. “Kickers are a fraternity. I don’t know him. I’ve never met him. I don’t care if it’s a 25-yard field goal. Everyone’s human. But a 47-yard field goal when you miss by an inch, whatever. It’s part of life. You’re not going to make every kick. It’s not fair for him and his family.”

*

Two key players in this game – Steelers safety Troy Polamalu and Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald – have long, flowing hair that burst out the back of their helmets. Fitzgerald’s is braided and neater than Polamalu’s wild mop.

Who has the better hair? “Him, by far,” Polamalu said. “It probably takes him much shorter time to get prepared than me.”