Mark Madden: This will be a strange Super Bowl for the Steelers to watch

It’s an odd Super Bowl from the Steelers’ perspective.

Former offensive coordinator Bruce Arians got fired by the Steelers after the 2011 season. The Steelers said he retired, which was a whopper of a lie. Arians has since won NFL Coach of the Year twice and has Tampa Bay in this season’s Super Bowl.

Since Arians left the Steelers, he’s had fewer resources to work with than Mike Tomlin. But it’s no stretch to say he’s done better. Arians has more playoff wins, anyway.

The Toxic Twins are both in the Super Bowl, kind of. Le’Veon Bell’s Kansas City Chiefs play Antonio Brown’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Each might see his presence in Tampa Feb. 7 as vindication for forcing his way out of Pittsburgh and his abhorrent behavior thereof.

But neither one played in the conference championship. Neither one has been instrumental. They’re jabroni backups earning chump change.

Either Bell or Brown will get a ring. But they give the ballboy a ring, too

Winning a championship was never a goal for the Toxic Twins. Their aim was to burnish their massive egos by way of maximizing their money and fame. They’ve failed miserably at that. No one talks about them. They’re in plain sight, but have disappeared.

The Steelers should be most embarrassed by Stefen Wisniewski’s presence on Kansas City’s roster. The Central Catholic High School and Penn State product will likely start at guard in the Super Bowl because of injuries. If the Chiefs win, it would be Wisniewski’s third ring in four seasons: 2017 season with Philadelphia, 2019 with Kansas City, and now.

Yet the Steelers couldn’t find a spot for Wisniewski on this season’s roster, let alone in their lineup. He was cut Nov. 9 after a stint on injured reserve.

Bad move: Wisniewski is a winner. After starting 11-0 but finishing 12-4 before losing their Wild Card round playoff game to Cleveland in embarrassing fashion, it’s painfully evident the Steelers don’t have enough winners in their locker room. Lots of TikTok, though.

The Steelers conned Wisniewski. Ramon Foster retired. The Steelers signed Wisniewski before the season, telling him he had a shot to succeed Foster as the starter at left guard. But Wisniewski never had a chance. The Steelers saw Wisniewski as the backup at both guard and center, succeeding B.J. Finney. In the end, they didn’t even see him as that.

But Wisniewski probably isn’t currently bothered by that.

So, the Super Bowl provides the Steelers bad optics, not least because they’re not in it after starting 11-0.

Tom Brady’s presence is the cherry on top.

Steelers fans see Brady as a nemesis. But the Steelers are the bug and Brady is the windshield. Brady is 9-3 against the Steelers, including 3-0 in playoff games.

Brady, at 43, got Tampa Bay to the Super Bowl in his first season with the Buccaneers even as his former team in New England finished 7-9. That does what seemed impossible: It extends Brady’s nonpareil greatness to an even higher plane.

If Tampa Bay wins the Super Bowl, you couldn’t remotely argue that Brady isn’t the best quarterback of all time. He’d be the No. 1 football player ever, and perhaps the most prominent figure in NFL history. Brady would arguably share a pinnacle in the American consciousness occupied by Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.

That’s even though Brady cheated a lot.