A coastal city in southern California is ideal for a Super Bowl clash between two bands of pirates.
The Oakland Raiders, who have a one-eyed seafaring warrior on the side of their helmets, face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, whose emblem is a tattered flag with a skull and swords.
Sunday's showdown marks the end of a long and perilous voyage for each.
Tampa Bay, who for most of their first 27 years were one of the worst outfits in professional sports, are in the big game for the first time. The Raiders are making a fifth appearance, but their first since 1984.
"We were the laughing stock of the league for a long time and we had to turn it around," said Tampa Bay star Warren Sapp.
"Years and years of bad football take a whole makeover and that means a lot of Mary Kay (cosmetics). I think we were the biggest Mary Kay project you could ever find."
Sapp has been one of the constants in Tampa Bay since his arrival in 1995.
Much like Lawrence Taylor dominated games as a linebacker for two Super Bowl-winning New York Giants sides, defensive tackle Sapp is so good at stopping the run and rushing the quarterback that he can shift the balance in games single-handedly.
His primary target in San Diego is going to be Rich Gannon, the late-blooming Oakland Raiders quarterback who at 37 years of age won the NFL's Most Valuable Player award.
Oakland, due in large part to Gannon, had the best offence in the league.
They scored 521 points in 18 games (28.9 average), including 71 in play-off victories over the New York Jets and Tennessee.
Tampa Bay are just as strong, but on defence.
The Bucs have allowed just 212 points in 18 games (13.3), including 16 in post-season wins over San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Watching the 'Silver and Black' in the Super Bowl is going to bring back a lot of memories for NFL fans because they are historically the NFL's bad boys.
Jack Tatum infamously crunched a receiver in the middle of the field once, and the player, who landed awkwardly, was paralysed for life.
Tatum was forever remembered for that tackle and later published his autobiography, titling it "They Call Me Assassin".
The Raiders have one of the all-time good guys in their line-up now.
Wide receiver Jerry Rice, who won three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, was effectively put out to pasture by the Niners a couple of years ago but he signed a deal with the Raiders and has continued to be productive.
Another of the sub-plots this week is the presence of coach Jon Gruden on the sidelines for Tampa Bay.
Gruden, in four years as Oakland's coach, brought respectability back to the franchise and took them to the play-offs twice.
After last season, however, Tampa Bay fired coach Tony Dungy and offered the job to Gruden.
He grabbed the reins, but only after the Bucs compensated the Raiders to the tune of several million dollars and a handful of top draft picks.
The Raiders lost Super Bowl II to Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers 35 years ago, but then prevailed the next three times they played in the game.
John Madden's Oakland Raiders beat the Minnesota Vikings in 1977 - Madden quit coaching after that and has been America's best television summariser ever since.
The Raiders then hammered Dick Vermeil's Philadelphia Eagles four years later, and in 1984 with owner Al Davis having moved the club to Los Angeles, the Raiders and Marcus Allen ran all over the Washington Redskins.
Having lost its soul, and passionate following by moving to the LA Coliseum, Davis ultimately decided to return to Oakland and a team always considered the bad guys in the NFL regained their nasty swagger.
In late team news, Charles Woodson is listed as questionable at corner back for the Raiders while Tampa Bay wide receiver Joe Jurevicius has a knee injury, but is expected to play.
The entertainment will be as extravagant as ever with Carlos Santana set to perform in a pre-game show while Shania Twain will star at half-time.