TUCSON, Ariz. – Pardon those around these parts that don't consider Super Bowl LII as Eagles vs. Patriots, Brady vs. Foles or any other national storyline.

This is all about Foles-Fipp vs. Gronkowski-Flowers.

Indeed, Sunday's Super Bowl will have quite the Wildcat theme to it, especially if you're looking on through the red and blue lens of Arizona football fans.

Yet, Arizona football players are no strangers to the biggest game of the year in American sports. In fact, it's been 47 years since Ron Gardin became the first former Wildcat to play in a Super Bowl. He was a punt returner and defensive back for the Baltimore Colts, who edged the Dallas Cowboys, 16-13, in Super V.

Gardin's road to Arizona and ultimately the National Football League was a long one. A native of Ansonia, Conn., he served in the Army for three years from 1962-64 before attending Cameron Junior College in Oklahoma. He transferred to Arizona in 1966 and then missed the 1967 season due to injury from a motor scooter accident.

When Gardin returned to the gridiron in 1968, he became one of the top offensive playmakers in the Western Athletic Conference. He was named first team All-WAC in 1968 and second team All-WAC in his final collegiate season of 1969.

The Colts drafted Gardin in the sixth round of the 1970 NFL Draft. Less than a year later, he was a Super Bowl champion and a year after that, his brief two-year career came to a close after a season with the New England Patriots.

Since Gardin, more than two dozen (26, to be exact) former Arizona football players have followed in his footsteps to play in the Super Bowl and they've combined for 45 total appearances. Those numbers are soon to increase as, this year alone, three former Wildcats are expected to play in Super Bowl LII with a fourth on a coaching staff.

While Arizona has had three and even four players in the same Super Bowl on multiple occasions, you'd be hard-pressed to find a year when a Wildcat is among the top storylines on each side as is the case this year. 

The headliner of Arizona's latest Super Bowl class is Rob Gronkowski, the star tight end of the New England Patriots who, if he is cleared to play following a concussion, will play in his fourth Super Bowl. Gronkowski is one of the most dynamic players in the NFL and has 102 yards and a touchdown this postseason. His teammate, linebacker Marquis Flowers, is set for his big game debut, yet has five tackles and a sack in two postseason games.

On the other sideline, UA's all-time passing leader, Nick Foles, will lead the Philadelphia Eagles in their quest for the franchise's first championship. His postseason play as the Eagles' starter has been brilliant with 598 yards, a rating of 122.1 and no interceptions. He will be joined by a mid-1990s Wildcat standout, Dave Fipp, who is the Eagles special teams coach.

Each of the aforementioned Wildcats enjoyed their own unique path to the NFL and, certainly, this year's Super Bowl.

Gronkowski, like Gardin decades earlier, traversed the country to wind up in the Old Pueblo. A native of Amherst, N.Y., Gronkowski attended Churchill Woodland Hills High School in Pennsylvania, signed with Arizona and arrived as a highly touted prospect for the 2007 season.

In his true freshman season, Gronkowski played in a dozen games, catching 28 passes for 525 yards and six touchdowns. As a sophomore, he nearly doubled his receptions to 47, despite playing in only 10 games. He hauled in 10 touchdowns and helped lead the Wildcats to the Las Vegas Bowl – the program's first bowl appearance in a decade.

An offseason back injury forced Gronkowski to miss the entire 2009 season and he would declare for the NFL Draft soon after. Still, his career totals of 75 receptions for 1,197 yards and 16 touchdowns remain the best numbers in school history for a tight end.

The back injury robbed college football fans of a chance to see one of the greatest quarterback-receiver duos of all time, even if they didn't realize it at the time. The same season Gronkowski missed his junior season, Foles was emerging as the most prolific passer in Arizona history.

A native of Austin, Texas, Foles' path to Arizona was well-documented. He originally committed to Arizona State, but eventually signed with Michigan State, where he played briefly in 2007. He then transferred to Arizona and sat out the 2008 season, when Gronkowski turned in an All-American campaign.

It took Foles three games into the 2009 season to become Arizona's starter, but once he did he never gave up the job even without the benefit of throwing to Gronkowski. In his three seasons as the starter, Foles shattered numerous school passing records and became the first player in program history to top 10,000 yards, finishing with 10,011. As a senior, Foles passed for 4,334 yards – easily a school record – for the nation's fourth-best passing offense.

Overlapping with Foles on the Wildcat rosters in 2010-2011 was Flowers, a highly recruited safety who later shifted to linebacker. While less heralded throughout his college career than Foles and Gronkowski, Flowers produced impressive numbers and blossomed into a sought after professional prospect himself.

In four seasons, Flowers played in 50 games while racking up 272 tackles, including 27 for loss along with five sacks. He bridged two coaching staffs – Mike Stoops and Rich Rodriguez – while helping the Wildcats to bowl victories in 2012 and 2013 before he was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the sixth round of the 2014 draft. The Goodyear, Ariz., native  joined the Patriots for the first time this season.

The final piece of Arizona's Super Bowl LII connections is Fipp, who despite never playing professionally, was always destined for greatness as a coach. A native of Albuquerque, N.M., Fipp joined the Wildcats as a walk-on for head coach Dick Tomey in 1994 and by 1995 led the special teams units in tackles. He then earned a scholarship and became a two-year starter as a free safety for the 1996-97 seasons. The 1997 Wildcats were one of the top defensive units in the Pac-10 and ranked 12th nationally defending the run.

Once his collegiate days was over, Fipp immediately began his coaching career at Holy Cross. He returned to Arizona as a graduate assistant under Tomey in 2000 and stayed connected with his former coach even after Arizona. Tomey, UA's all-time winningest head coach, later coached at San Jose State from 2005-09, where he hired Fipp as a co-defensive coordinator for 2005-06, before promoting him to defensive coordinator in 2007.

Fipp's professional coaching career began in 2008 as a special teams assistant with the San Francisco 49ers, where he spent three seasons. He then joined the Miami Dolphins for the 2011-12 seasons in a similar role, before heading the Philadelphia where he has since been the Eagles' Special Teams Coordinator since 2013.

Alas, from Fipp in the 1990s to Flowers in the 2010s, Arizona football is going to win this Sunday evening.

So make your pick: Foles-Fipp or Gronkowski-Flowers? Or just Bear Down.