Rams and Patriots touch down

Hometown boy: The Rams' Aeneas Williams (with ball)

The St Louis Rams and New England Patriots have arrived in New Orleans ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl clash.

Without the usual seven days before the NFL's showpiece game, this year's Super Bowl combatants have barely had time to digest, much less savour Sunday's hard-fought championship victories.

The build-up period was shortened when the NFL regular season was delayed by a week after the events of 11 September.

I am having an opportunity to do something that many players only dream about

Aeneas Williams on his
Super Bowl homecoming

"We really haven't done much of anything other than unpack, re-pack and fly down to New Orleans. But it's good to be here," said Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.

"We're still flying kind of high," added Belichick, whose team stunned the Steelers 24-17 in Pittsburgh to earn the franchise's third trip to the Super Bowl - all of them in New Orleans.

The Rams held off a stubborn, upset-minded Philadelphia team 29-24 to earn their second trip to the Super Bowl in three years.

Heading off the expected barrage of quarterback questions, Belichick said he planned to announce his starting QB following practice on Wednesday.

Most expensive

It is rare not to know who will start in the most important of positions heading into a Super Bowl.

But Tom Brady, who took over from the injured Drew Bledsoe in Week 2 and never surrendered the starting job, suffered a sprained ankle during Sunday's second quarter.

Bledsoe, who spent most of the season as the most expensive back-up in league history, stepped in for Brady and helped take the Patriots back to Super Bowl XXXVI.

Martz: Boosted by Warner and Pace's progress

There is no doubt who will start for the Rams with NFL MVP Kurt Warner having displayed no ill effects from the rib injury that bothered him in the run-up to the NFC title game.

Rams head coach Mike Martz said Warner was "surprisingly not sore", declaring emphatically, "Kurt's back!"

Martz was also pleased that Orlando Pace, the Rams's most dominating offensive lineman, appeared to have a less severe strain to his knee ligaments than first thought.

"He should practice. He's not in as much pain as we thought or feared this morning, so that looks good," Martz said.

Dream

For two of the Rams's most outstanding players, Monday's flight was not just a trip to the Super Bowl but a homecoming.

Both superstar running back Marshall Faulk and seven-time Pro Bowl cornerback Aeneas Williams grew up in New Orleans.

They starred on high school teams in the city and even worked at Saints games at the SuperDome, the venue for Super Bowl XXXVI.

"I could not have written a better script," said Williams the day before his 34th birthday.

"I am having an opportunity to do something that many players only dream about.

"To have that opportunity, and to do it in front of your hometown in the SuperDome, where I sold popcorn, peanuts and Coke, where I played high school games and college games, is great."