Cajuns get seventh Super Bowl ring

From staff reports • February 2, 2009

UL has a proud tradition of Super Bowl champions and that tradition continued on Sunday.

Ike Taylor claimed his second Super Bowl ring thanks to Pittsburgh’s 27-23 win over the Arizona Cardinals. The Cajuns boast seven different Super Bowl rings, now that Taylor has captured the most recent championship.

Taylor started his second Super Bowl, becoming the first former Ragin’ Cajun to be active in two Super Bowls. He tied for the team lead with seven tackles for the Steelers defense.

Arizona’s Michael Adams made one of the Super Bowl’s key plays in just the 16th game of his young NFL career.

Adams, officially the smallest player on the Super Bowl XLIII flip card at 5-foot-8, 181 pounds, made a nice tackle on punt coverage with 2:46 remaining in the first half. He then downed a punt on the Steelers one-yard line with 3:26 remaining in the game that led to a Cardinal’s safety at the 2:58 mark. Arizona scored two plays later to take a 23-20 lead with 2:37 to play.

Ten different Cajuns have appeared in the Super Bowl, with Taylor and Brandon Stokley making multiple appearances, although Stokley was inactive with Indianapolis in Super Bowl XLI.

In an extraordinary feat, the Cajuns have been represented in the big game in each of the last four seasons, five of the past six, and six of the last nine Super Bowls.

Only 19 schools have been represented in the last four Super Bowls and just one from outside the BCS.

Alabama, Arizona State, Auburn, Boston College, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Louisiana State, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Purdue and Texas can boast former players in Super Bowls XL, XLI, XLII and XLIII.

The Cajuns saw Taylor start XL, Charles Tillman start for the Chicago Bears in XLI and Stokley as an inactive member of the Indianapolis Colts. Antwain Spann played for the New England Patriots in XLII before Taylor and Adams played this season.

Athletic Network Footnote:  When the Steeler defensive team was providing player introductions for the world-wide television audience by naming the college/high school where they played football, Ike Taylor chose instead to state a reference to his swagger.