ARLINGTON, Texas » NFL commissioners can’t root, so Roger Goodell will just sit back and smile as he watches this Super Bowl.

A season that saw pro football claim boffo TV ratings and reach new heights of popularity — even as it dealt with a stream of off-field woes — will end with two classic, hard-nosed teams clashing in its championship game.

"When you look at this matchup," Goodell said, "and you say Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers — that’s football."

"This isn’t just about fans in western Pennsylvania or Wisconsin. They have national followings. And I think that is what’s so exciting for this country and the whole world. This is fun. This is celebrating the game that I love, that we all love, and I think this is going to be a terrific night."

It’s hard to argue with the mystique and tradition that comes with this one, stretching all the way back to football’s blue-collar roots.

The Steelers (14-4) already own the most Vince Lombardi Trophies (six), which must gall their opponents from Titletown USA. Pittsburgh goes for its seventh Super Bowl title tomorrow at Cowboys Stadium. Green Bay (13-6) has three, taking the first two Super Bowls under Lombardi’s guidance, and winning another in 1997. The Packers also took six NFL championship games before there was a Super Bowl.

What’s funny, in this age of tweeting players and 24/7 Super Bowl week coverage, is that these teams would probably look familiar to the Steelers and Packers of 1933, the first year both franchises were in the league.

Both the Packers and the Steelers have 16 homegrown starters.

Each has a dynamic defense led by the top two vote-getters for Defensive Player of the Year, Steelers safety Troy Polamalu and Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, the runner-up.

Both have playmaking quarterbacks who have risen to elite status — although in entirely different manners. Just as the two teams went about getting to the Super Bowl in opposite ways: Pittsburgh as a division winner and second seed that won two home games, the Packers as a wild card that hit the road for three victories over division champs.

Through it all, there’s that history of success that bonds the Rooney family-owned Steelers and the community-owned Packers.

"Coach (Mike) Tomlin uses the term with his players," Green Bay general manager Ted Thompson says of the Steelers coach. "He says, ‘The standard is the standard.’

"Quite frankly, that philosophy seems to fit pretty good with us, too."

Yes, there’s the Steelers Way and the Packers Way. Through the Lambeau, Lombardi and Holmgren years in Green Bay, the Noll, Cowher and Tomlin years in Pittsburgh, the common thread has been sticking to your roots no matter how bumpy the journey.

"I think the idea of having the right people in place and finding and keeping good people, that’s something that goes back to my grandfather and my father," says Steelers president Art Rooney II. "As they said, keeping it simple and keeping the right people in place, that’s the key."

The players recognize how different these two franchises are from the other 30 teams.

It might sound corny when they say "Once a Steeler (or Packer), always a Steeler (or Packer)." Yet it rings true for them, and that doesn’t simply stem from success on the field. It goes beyond that.

"I think the first thing you look at is there’s no owner, so a lot of the fans consider themselves owners and personally invested," says Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. "A lot of them are personally invested in the team."

Of course, there are no other pro teams in Green Bay. Even though there are two in Pittsburgh, the Penguins and Pirates, the Steel City’s true love affair is with the Steelers.

"It’s awesome," says quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. "I don’t want to say we’re used to it because we don’t want to take it for granted, but everywhere we go, there are Steelers fans and they’re awesome. … I know we’ve got a team whose fans are going to want to argue that because Packers fans are great, too, so that’s why I think this is the awesome matchup."