Graphic: Super Bowl XLIII

If there is anything that America loves more than a winner, it is a comeback. Tomorrow, the Pittsburgh Steelers are attempting to become the first team to win the Super Bowl six times, but Kurt Warner has a chance to captivate a nation by becoming a comeback winner - for the second time.

The Arizona Cardinals quarterback wrote the first chapter of his improbable story into Super Bowl history in 2000. Rejected by the Green Bay Packers, he worked in a supermarket and played indoor American football and in NFL Europe before joining the St Louis Rams. When Trent Green, the Rams' first-choice quarterback, was injured in pre-season, Warner led the team to their first Super Bowl victory, being voted the league's Most Valuable Player along the way. And of course it helped the story that he is a devout Christian who had married a single mother with a visually impaired son.

The story had a sequel. Warner went back to the big game two years later, but the Rams lost. His form suffered and after a failed move to the New York Giants, he ended up in Arizona - more or less a retirement home for has-beens.

But there was one more twist. Somehow, Warner found himself again in the desert and has inspired another team to their first Super Bowl, defying age - at 37 he would be the third-oldest quarterback to win a ring - to throw spectacular touchdown passes such as the four that beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game 13 days ago.

“People looked at Arizona as a black hole,” he said. “They thought, ‘The Cardinals won't win, Kurt Warner can't really play any more.' I knew that I could still play, so that's been one of the neat parts of the story: they took a chance, I took a chance and together we've made something special happen. It's exciting to be a part of watching this organisation go somewhere that they haven't gone before.”

Having won and lost in Super Bowls, Warner is in no doubt which experience lives in the memory. “I think about the game that we lost more than any game that I've ever played in,” he said. “We were expected to win and so when you don't win, you feel like you miss an opportunity to make history. I'm going to do my best to make sure I don't have to think about this one too much.”

Warner always credits his Christian faith for his successes and is unapologetic about doing so. “I know some people get tired of hearing it and say, - How does it relate to football?'” he said. “Everything I do, everywhere I go, I'm trying to live up [to] or to represent Jesus. It will always be who I am and it's the most important thing in my life. So more times than not, it's going to be the first thing I talk about.”

For Warner to win, the Cardinals offensive line must protect him from an aggressive pass rush. Then, if his throws are as accurate as usual, it will be up to Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, the wide receivers, to evade the attentions of Troy Polamalu and the rest of the Steelers' outstanding defense. As an alternative, the return to form of Edgerrin James, the former Indianapolis Colts running back, has been timely and James has the extra motivation of wanting to prove that he made the right decision in moving to Arizona the season before the Colts won the Super Bowl title in 2007.

The Steelers remain favourites and Ben Roethlisberger will be keen to bury memories of 2006, when he posted the worst passing statistics of any Super Bowl-winning quarterback. However, the fitness of Hines Ward, the key wide receiver, is questionable and the Cardinals defense has recently been adept in stealing turnovers from opponents. Most commentators, therefore, expect Pittsburgh's defense to be the winning factor. It will be up to Warner to prove everybody wrong again.