So how is it that the big story essentially became that there is no story?

The problem facing ESPN and the rest of the sports media is this: nobody on the Cardinals or Steelers will say anything controversial. Joey Porter was the Steelers' designated verbal hit-man before Super Bowl XL when he and Jerramy Stevens of the Seahawks exchanged insults. With Porter gone, ESPN tried to find a replacement but none of the Pittsburgh players wanted the job.

On the other sideline, the Cardinals' two weeks have been a virtual Kurt Warner love-fest, with Larry Fitzgerald calling him a "hall-of-fame father, hall-of-fame friend, and hall-of-fame quarterback." The 37 year-old Warner, once Super Bowl MVP and twice NFL MVP, doesn't have to say anything – everybody already knows who he is.

Fitzgerald himself has received much positive attention. Even when Anquan Boldin's sideline dispute with an assistant coach threatened to become exactly the kind of drama ESPN was looking for, Fitzgerald intervened.

Reports of Boldin's unhappiness with the team were gathering steam despite his insistence that the incident, caught on camera, was being over-blown. When Anquan couldn't stop the rumors, Larry did. Fitzgerald, whose even keel has been the hallmark of the team throughout the playoffs, quickly announced his willingness to restructure his contract so the Cardinals could resign his teammate.

Fitzgerald's dominating good nature and Warner's maturity have set the tone for an Arizona team that is exuding a newfound confidence and joy at being in the Super Bowl. None of the Cardinals are willing to tarnish that with needless drama.

What the media craves however -- and what they're not getting -- is a conflict between the teams to build the hype.

Before the AFC championship game, the big story was how much the Ravens and Steelers hate each other. Aside from bickering and bets from fans and mayors, most of the talk in that rivalry was coming from the Ravens, bragging that they were the team no one wanted to play.

And in the lead up to the NFC championship game, the Eagles were so cocky as they prepared to play a team that they had previously blown out 48-20 that it was as if they were already thinking about the Super Bowl.

Both the Eagles and the Ravens have histories of loose chatter off the field, and feature two of the most vocal superstars in the league in Donovan McNabb and Ray Lewis. What else do they have in common? They both lost.

That's one of the most impressive things about the current silence between the Cardinals and Steelers. Both teams have plenty of players who could be considered superstars but, atypical for the NFL, none of those guys will talk. Give credit to the coaches, both Whisenhunt and Tomlin are young with little head coaching experience, but they have received excellent behavior from their players.

With so many high-drama players like McNabb and Lewis in the NFL, it's refreshing to hear Larry Fitzgerald point out all the ways he could get better while simultaneously giving one of the best post-season performances ever seen from a wide receiver.

Sure we have to put up with debate about the possible objectivity of his father, a sports-writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, but that's better than watching Jerramy Stevens make a fool of himself in a verbal war with Joey Porter. Thankfully this year, the Steelers and Cardinals have both shown surprising maturity throughout the playoffs.

Of the four teams that made the conference championships, the two victors were the teams with the least drama and the least antics off the field. Hopefully the rest of the league, and maybe the Dallas Cowboys, will take notice.