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Steelers expecting something tricky

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The Cardinals have had a lot of success in the playoffs running trick plays, or even just misdirections. Two that come to mind were long passes from Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald.

The first, at Carolina, was a fake pitch that froze the defense, followed by a bomb to Fitzgerald, who outleaped the two defenders sandwiching him and made the catch.

Then, in the NFC championship game against Philadelphia, Warner pitched to J.J. Arrington, who threw it back to him. The quarterback then hit Fitzgerald streaking down the middle, one on one with backup safety Will Demps. The defender slipped, and Fitzgerald scored an easy touchdown.

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Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward knows Cardinals Coach Ken Whisenhunt as well as anyone, seeing as Whisenhunt is his former offensive coordinator. Ward said Thursday that the Steelers are expecting a trick play or two from Arizona right off the bat.

“I wouldn’t put it past him to start off the game with a trick play,” Ward said. “They are playing with a lot of confidence. We don’t like to call them trick plays. We just call them plays that we execute. Wiz says he’s not going to have one, but he has one in his back pocket waiting for us.

“Hopefully, we can execute it and turn it around for us to have a big play. Maybe we can cause a fumble or get an interception off the trick play.”

Sweet role model

Arizona might have finished last in the league in rushing, but the Cardinals have improved in that department in recent weeks. Among their biggest running plays was a conversion on fourth-and-one by rookie Tim Hightower in the NFC title game.

As football role models go, Hightower could not have picked a better one.

“Growing up as a kid, I loved Walter Payton,” he said of the late, great Chicago Bears star. “He was a guy who every time he touched the ball, he was going to give it everything he had, whether they were up by 50 points or down by 50 points. He was going to run hard on every single play, and he was a competitor who loved the game.

“That’s something I want to emulate, not as far as talent-wise, because you can’t really compare talent, but just his whole approach to the game and how he just cared about playing every single Sunday.”

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The Cardinals have to love hearing that.

Boss is old-school

The Super Bowl halftime entertainment is Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. He participated in the league’s annual halftime news conference Thursday, Springsteen’s first such sit-down since 1987, when he did one on behalf of Amnesty International.

He playfully warned the conference room full of reporters, photographers and other invited onlookers that he didn’t know much about football.

“I’ll date myself here, but when I hear Steelers, I think Terry Bradshaw,” he said. “When he retired, they said, ‘Terry, what are you going to do now?’ He said, ‘I’m going to live like my dog.’

“They said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Well, my dog just lives to live.’ ”

Springsteen indicated he likes that philosophy. He also said that performing at President Obama’s inauguration should help him for Sunday’s grand stage -- even though he’s already one of the country’s most popular performers.

“The inauguration was a good run-up for this,” he said. “You’ll have a lot of crazy football fans, but you won’t have Lincoln staring over your shoulder. So that takes some of the pressure off.”

Injury updates

Arizona’s Arrington, who sat out all of last week’s practices because of a sore right knee, went through a limited workout for the second day in a row. He took part in offensive drills but sat out special-teams work. Arrington is the team’s primary kickoff returner.

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Injured defensive ends Travis LaBoy (biceps) and Antonio Smith (knee) both worked out extensively for the Cardinals.

The Steelers’ Ward took part in his first full-scale practice since injuring his right knee in the AFC championship game.

Ward did not run at full speed but worked with the starting offense throughout a rainy practice at the University of South Florida.

Pittsburgh Coach Mike Tomlin denied any injury problem with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who appeared to be stretching his mid-torso region throughout practice.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com

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