Both teams in Super Bowl XLI have won the NFL's ultimate prize before although, admittedly, Indianapolis did it as the Baltimore Colts in 1971.
 | My generation of kids watching the Super Bowl never saw African-American coaches |
However, the big game in Miami on 4 February will lead to one major first for the American football, whatever the result. It's a bit like standing at a bus stop - the NFL waits 40 years for a black head coach to take a team to the Super Bowl, then two come along at once.
Tony Dungy's Colts meet Lovie Smith's Chicago Bears at Dolphins Stadium, with both men appreciating the significance of their achievement.
In a sport where 70% of the players are African-American, black head coaches are still very much in a minority.
When Dungy was hired to fill Tampa Bay's hot-seat in 1996, only three of the league's 30 team bosses were non-white.
One of his assistants was, ironically, Lovie Smith. Another was Herm Edwards, who went on to coach the New York Jets and, currently, Kansas City.
The three old friends met up for dinner in Indianapolis before Dungy's team met - and subsequently beat - Edwards' Chiefs in the play-offs first round.
Dungy recalled: "We talked about starting at '96 in Tampa, how great it was that we were in the play-offs, and how at least two of us had a chance to make it to the Super Bowl."
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Dungy and Smith seized that chance, with the Colts beating New England in the AFC title game, and the Bears mauling New Orleans in the NFC decider.
Smith, 48, in his third season as Chicago's head coach, is mindful of his place in sports history.
When asked about him or Dungy lifting the Vince Lombardi trophy, he said: "Of course, it would be special if that happened.
"I hope for a day when it is unnoticed, but that day isn't here."
Progress has been made since Art Shell became the NFL's first black coach of the modern era with the-then LA Raiders in 1990.
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As well as Dungy, Smith and Edwards, Marvin Lewis is currently in charge at Cincinnati and Romeo Crennel calls the shots at Cleveland.
Dennis Green was fired after a poor regular season by Arizona, while Shell's second stint with the Raiders - this time in Oakland - also ended in January.
But Dungy, 52, believes he and Smith can be pathfinders for black coaches of the future.
"My generation of kids watching the Super Bowl never saw African-American coaches," he said.
"You could be a player, but not necessarily the quarterback. Then we saw Doug Williams play and win a Super Bowl at quarterback (for Washington in 1988).
"Now maybe a young kid will watch this game and think, 'Maybe I can be the coach one day'. That's special. We're all a product of our environment and our past."
The league acknowledged talented black coaches were getting a raw deal from its clubs when it introduced the 'Rooney Rule' in 2002.
Inspired by the efforts of Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, it requires teams to interview suitable 'minority' candidates for head coaching jobs.
While critics argue the rule is unworkable, others think that it at least gets black potential head coaches a chance to put their case to club owners and execs.
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Rooney himself recently appointed Minnesota Vikings defensive co-ordinator Mike Tomlin as Pittsburgh's new head coach. He was initially seen as an unlikely choice behind front-runners such as Ken Wisenhunt, who eventually filled the Cardinals vacancy left by Green.
But Tomlin took his opportunity and convinced the Steelers hierarchy that he was the man for the job.
Of course, Lovie Smith is right to hope for the day when the colour of any coach's skin - or anyone else's for that matter - goes unnoticed.
However, either he or Dungy will still have the honour of being the first African-American to win the Super Bowl.
The second time it happens, it won't be such a big deal.
And the third and fourth time... well, by then maybe Smith will have got his wish and the NFL will be colour-blind.
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