TAMPA, Fla. -- Acadre of essential power brokers were enlisted yesterday to explain that Super Bowl XLIII has no host city per se, but rather a host region -- Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater -- with even Orlando trying to get in on the act.

That's stretching it, but with even a minor expansion in the awareness of the surroundings, it somehow makes relevant that it was just some 17 miles down the road, on the night of May 9, 1965, that Keith Richards woke up in a chair in his Clearwater hotel room and discovered that before he'd passed out, he'd somehow committed to tape the opening riff of what would within weeks become the Rolling Stones anthem "Satisfaction."

I didn't say I knew how that's relevant, except that it seems easily as relevant as some of the events on the official regional itinerary as Super Bowl week begins gathering its momentum.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (relevancy hint: The Saints are not in the Super Bowl) yesterday joined Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Warrick Dunn (ditto) for the first news conference after a round of Financial Football, an animated, interactive computer game developed by VISA designed to help students learn important money management skills.

A good question would have been: If the United States Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the top MBAs running the banks and major brokerage firms apparently have no such skills, what chance do these kids have? But I just thought of it now.

Before we get to game day, sometime next month, Doritos and Telemundo will stage for national television Tazon Latino III, a flag football game between former NFL stars including Vinny Testaverde and Rocket Ismail and current Latino celebrities including Julissa Bermudez and Jencarlos Canela.

The morning line is Celebs minus 6, as handicappers are apparently counting on Vinny for two picks minimum.

When all this is happening on your watch it can be a little stressful, and if Monday showed anything it was that Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio probably should dial it back just a little.

"Let me make this as clear as I can," said Herroner while virtually bristling at a question about Tampa's homeless population allegedly being shifted offstage. "We would never, never move the homeless out of Tampa for the Super Bowl or for any other reason. All major American cities have a homeless issue. It's part of our failure as a society. Tampa police only want to help the homeless. We would never do that."

Pam, it's OK. It's OK. Maybe she's a little skittish because of what happened to the last mayor of a major American city to play host to the Steelers in a Super Bowl. In jail since Oct. 28 after pleading guilty to two felonies, embattled former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick expects to be released next Monday.

Efforts to make this annual event not only more than a game but into a kind of bizarre cultural phenomenon have been going on for decades now, but Tampa has introduced an aspect for this Super Bowl that is truly batty.

Apparently, the Arizona Cardinals are in it.

Honest to God.

That's like having the Cleveland Browns in the Super Bowl, or the Detroit Lions. Who would be so daft?

Yesterday's arrival on Florida's Suncoast of former Steelers assistant Ken Whisenhunt's upstart Cardinals means that only the Browns, Lions, Saints, the relatively newish Jacksonville Jaguars and the even newerish Houston Texans have never been to a Super Bowl. But the Cardinals have not merely avoided all 43 Super Bowls, they've avoided winning even 10 games in a season since 1976, a period in which the Steelers, by random example, have won 10 or more 14 times. The Cardinals are the outfit that has been quarterbacked by the likes of Gary Cuozzo, Stan Gelbaugh, Gary Hogeboom, Cliff Stoudt and Tom Tupa, whose combined starts resulted in 10-29, or about the club's typical winning percentage.

"It's a little depressing for me," said Buccaneers co-chairman Bryan Glazer at the host committee presser, "to see Arizona Cardinals flags flying in front of our [practice] facility."

Glazer was joking, of course, the clear implication being he'd hoped to have his own club represent the NFC here this week. At least I think that's what he meant.

Fortunately, there are 4,500 credentialed media here this week to explain what Arizona is doing here, and Sunday the worthy 2008 Cardinals will mount the same Super stage where Whitney Houston and Jack Squirek made entertainment history. Perhaps they will as well.

It's only Tuesday, but Tampa, the host city per se, has already delivered. The weather is gorgeous, although for Sunday they're expecting 3 to 6.

That's clouds.

Copyright 2009 P.G. Publishing Co.