Kurt Warner hesitates to call Steelers a 'dynasty'

[February 06, 2009]  KAPOLEI, Hawaii (AP) -- The Super Bowl champions have no problem using the word "dynasty" when referring to their storied franchise and record six titles.

"We've got a new saying, 'Welcome to Sixburgh,'" Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Farrior said following Pro Bowl practice Thursday.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, on the other hand, isn't as fast to use the D-word when referring to the Steelers, even though he acknowledges their excellence.

"I think dynasty is such a hard word in this day and age because when you think of dynasty, you think of dominance over everybody else," Warner said. "Maybe dynasty in games won or titles won, but I think there's just great parity around this league."

As an example of the balance in the NFL today, Warner pointed to the start of the playoffs where he said no one had any idea who would be in the Super Bowl.

And many, if not everyone outside of Arizona, counted the Cardinals out.

"Yeah, they separated themselves and won the games and won the championship, but I look at dynasty different now," Warner said. "I don't know if there are any dynasties, or I think it's hard to come by.

"I think if they're going to be one, they're going to have to dominate a little bit more over the next couple years. But you can't take anything away from what they've done over the course of the last few and how well they played."

The Steelers have won two of the last four Super Bowls. Before that, they appeared in just one in a span of 25 years, losing to the Dallas Cowboys in 1996.

They also have a long list of players in the Hall of Fame.

Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald has no qualms about the word. He says the Steelers "definitely" qualify as one.

"When you think of dynasty, you think of Troy Aikmans, Emmitt Smiths, Michael Irvins," Fitzgerald said. "You look at Pittsburgh the same way. They got the Hines Wards, Ben Roethlisbergers, Troy Polamalus. Guys like that have been there and really embody what that city represents -- that toughness and never-say-die attitude and that was proven again last Sunday."

Farrior said the Steelers' thrilling victory over the Cardinals that claimed Pittsburgh's sixth Lombardi Trophy, "definitely put a mark in the NFL." They had been tied with Dallas and San Francisco at five titles.

But both of those teams haven't appeared in the Super Bowl since the mid-1990s. So are they considered dynasties?

The philosophical Polamalu, a member of the Steelers' last two championship teams, said he's thought about what the latest victory means, but won't fully understand until later on.

"When the season does end, you're able to put into perspective the legacy of the Pittsburgh Steelers as a whole, not in terms of a dynasty in the last few years," he said. "When you can put it in that perspective, it's pretty amazing, when you separate yourself in having six and everybody else having five."

Polamalu added that the "personality of the teams has never really changed throughout the existence of the Steelers."

To Farrior, all he's focused on right now is not about whether others consider the Steelers a dynasty, but that he's in Hawaii, celebrating with two of his teammates, and enjoying the warm Hawaiian sunshine.

"We embrace it all together. That's what Steelers football is all about," he said. "We love being part of the history that's going on."

[Associated Press; By JAYMES SONG]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.