DALLAS (AP) - Derrick Brooks figures Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin won't relish another championship very long if the Steelers beat Green Bay in the Super Bowl.
"If they happen to win the Super Bowl on Sunday, on Monday, he's telling the team we're back at the bottom of the mountain with everybody else," Brooks said, recalling a conversation with Tomlin after the Steelers won their last Super Bowl two years ago.
"After they beat Arizona, I said you know how it is to be that target and defending," he said. "He said, 'Brooks, we're not defending, we're climbing, we don't have nothing to defend. That season is gone."'
Brooks, the 11-time Pro Bowl linebacker-turned-broadcaster, told Tomlin to enjoy the title. They shared in a championship in Tampa Bay.
The coach's response according to Brooks - "The way I see it, somebody got a 48-hour head start on me. I've got to catch up."
Tampa Bay won the 2003 Super Bowl when Brooks was the NFL defensive player of the year and Tomlin was a defensive backs coach for the Buccaneers. Tomlin was there from 2002-05, then spent a season as Minnesota's defensive coordinator before becoming Pittsburgh's coach.
The 37-year-old Brooks is only a year older than Tomlin, who has already won a Super Bowl as a head coach. The Steelers are going for their third title in six years, creating some conversation about whether they are a dynasty.
"I think the conversation is warranted, but with Mike T's age being so young as a head coach, I think there's still room to add to that legacy," Brooks said. "When I think of the word dynasty, I think of ending, and I know that that's not him. He's continuing to build."
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CLOSED FLYOVER: Even though the roof at Cowboys Stadium will be closed for Sunday's game, there will still be a military flyover during pre-game activities.
Game organizers said the flyover would be televised by Fox during its broadcast, and also be shown to the fans inside the stadium on those "little screens" over the field - the two high-definition screens that are about 72 feet high each and stretch nearly 60 yards between the 20-yard lines.
Some ticket-purchasing fans will be able to see the flyover with their own eyes. About 5,000 tickets, at $200 each, were sold to Dallas Cowboys season ticket holders to watch the game in a party plaza outside the Super Bowl stadium.
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NEED A TICKET?: There are still tickets available to see the Packers and Steelers play in the Super Bowl on Sunday - at a big price.
More than 1,800 tickets were for sale Thursday on NFL Ticket Exchange, the league's official resale marketplace through Ticketmaster. The cheapest listing was $2,907 for an upper-level seat in the end zone, and the most expensive was $23,730 for a lower-level seat at midfield.
According to Ticketmaster, the average price of tickets sold on the service was $4,118 and the highest price paid was $15,946.
One-fourth of the Super Bowl tickets were sold in Texas. After that, Pennsylvania (8.2 percent) and Wisconsin (7.9 percent) were the obvious next-highest states for ticket sales.
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RODDICK GOES CHEESE: Andy Roddick is just one of the athletes planning to watch this Super Bowl in person. He's taking a special guest with him - his father.
Because of Jerry Roddick's lifelong passion for the Green Bay Packers, that's the team the tennis star will be cheering for Sunday. The way his father talked of Packers' legends like Vince Lombardi, Paul Hornung and Bart Starr as if he knew them, Roddick didn't realize until a year ago that his father had never actually been inside Lambeau Field.
Roddick remedied that with a trip to Lambeau for a game. Now he is topping that with a trip to this Super Bowl.
"My favorite part was kind of seeing him take it all in," Roddick said Thursday in a conference call discussing an upcoming tennis tournament in Memphis. "He had been such a fan since he was a little kid with all those players you just mentioned. I think Lombardi was his favorite person ever. It was kind of cool for me to be able to do that for him."
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MVP PROTECTORS: The heaviest trophy in NFL history goes to Tom Brady's protectors.
The New England Patriots offensive line was picked Thursday as the winner of the second annual Madden Most Valuable Protectors Award.
Patriots linemen Dan Koppen, Dan Connolly and Mark LeVoir accepted the 102-pound trophy sponsored by heartburn drug Prilosec OTC. The New Orleans Saints won last year.
The award is based on a combination of criteria, such as sacks allowed, rushing and passing yardage, offensive line penalties, third- and fourth-down conversion percentage, fan voting and John Madden's personal observations.
New England led the NFL with 32 points a game and allowed only 25 sacks, ranking fourth in the league.
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AP Sports Writer Teresa Walker contributed to this report from Nashville, Tenn.
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