Former AFL stars Saverio Rocca and Ben Graham will go head-to-head for the honour of becoming the first Australian to play in the Super Bowl.
Rocca’s Philadelphia Eagles upset the New York Giants 23-11 on Monday morning (AEDT) to set up an NFC championship decider with Graham’s Arizona Cardinals, who beat the Carolina Panthers 33-12 a day earlier.
The Eagles and Cardinals will meet in front of a sellout crowd at Arizona’s University of Phoenix Stadium next Monday (AEDT), with the winner to progress to the Super Bowl on February 1 in Tampa Bay.
Former St Louis Cardinals defensive end Colin Scotts, the only one of the six Australians to have played in the NFL who was not a punter, said huge fame awaited the Australian on the winning team.
“Ben Graham or Sav Rocca will be absolute rock stars in the United States of America for being in the Super Bowl and being the first Australian to be in the Super Bowl,” Scotts told FoxSports.
“You can’t put words to it, it’s a religion in America, you get 300 million people watching over there … I’m just so proud to think there’s going to be an Aussie out there.”
Both Australians were on the right side of major upsets.
Rocca had four punts, averaging 42 yards, as the Eagles dethroned the reigning NFL champions, including an important punt in the final term which pinned the Giants 11 yards out.
Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb starred, running for a touchdown and throwing for another.
“Things just started to click late in the first half and in the second half we continued to roll,” McNabb said.
The Giants, despite being the No.1 seed in the NFC, lost for the fourth time in five games to end their season.
Graham had four punts, averaging 43.5 yards, in the Cardinals’ surprisingly comfortable win over Carolina, including two punts which put the Panthers inside their 20-yard line.
It was just Graham’s sixth game for Arizona, who have reached a conference championship for the first time.
After a four-year stint with the New York Jets, Graham was sacked three times this season – twice by the Jets and once by the New Orleans Saints – before joining the Cardinals last month.
In a quirk of fate, he replaced veteran punter Dirk Johnson, the same man Rocca ousted in the 2007 pre-season to win the punting berth with Philadelphia.
Rocca, 35, played 257 AFL games with Collingwood and North Melbourne from 1991 to 2006, while Graham, also 35, played 219 matches with Geelong from 1993 to 2004, captaining the club from 2000 to 2002.
In Monday’s other game, Ben Roethlisberger threw for 181 yards including a touchdown as the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the San Diego Chargers 35-24.
The Steelers will host Baltimore in Monday’s AFC championship game.
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