Consider the thousands of variables that come together in the minds and bodies of 53 players to produce a champion -- a unit that almost magically exceeds the sum of its parts.

It is a Yin-Yang conundrum. Sheer athletic ability is the foundation, of course, but experience is essential. Too much of one and not enough of the other guarantees failure. But on the rare occasions when they exist in balance and harmony, wondrous things happen.

The Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers find themselves at the pinnacle of their profession. The Raiders have won 13 of 18 games, the Bucs are 14-for-18. They have come to this place on very different paths. The Raiders' core offensive players are a collection of free agents who have been successful elsewhere. The center of the Buccaneers' defense is a group of players who joined Tampa Bay out of college.

Raiders linebacker Bill Romanowski has four Super Bowl rings, two with the San Francisco 49ers and two with the Denver Broncos. If the Raiders win, Romanowski will win his fifth Super Bowl ring, a record currently held by Charles Haley, who won with the 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. Wide receiver Jerry Rice has three Super Bowl rings, all won with the 49ers. Safety Rod Woodson and defensive tackle Sam Adams won a ring two years ago with the Baltimore Ravens.

"This team is assembled for one thing, and that's to win and win it all," Romanowski said. "It's not rebuilding anything. Right now, we've put ourselves in position to do that. Now we've got to take care of business."

	Jurevicius did not have any receptions in the Super Bowl two years ago with the Giants.

The Bucs have five players on their roster with Super Bowl experience -- wide receivers Keenan McCardell, Joe Jurevicius, linebacker Jack Golden, punter Tom Tupa and offensive tackle Lomas Brown. Only McCardell, who was on injured reserve all season with the '91 Super Bowl champion Redskins, has a ring.

"It has been a journey that was not overnight," said Tampa Bay general manager Rich McKay. "It was a slow boat to China and the boat had holes. We are happy to be here."

Two different paths. One game to win. The hunger is palpable.

The Raiders love to live in their glorious past, but this fact remains: The last Super Bowl for the silver and black was January, 1984. Meanwhile, in 26 previous seasons of existence, the Bucs had never been.

Both teams have learned to win over time. The irony? The players say that losses teach the most.

The team that learned the most on their peculiar journey will win Super Bowl XXXVII on Sunday.

In today's parity-soaked NFL, learning curves aren't what they used to be. The Bucs follow the more organic, traditional line, but the Raiders accelerated that curve with free agency. The last three league champions -- the New England Patriots, St. Louis Rams and Ravens -- are examples of this trend. It is imperative to mention that not one of those teams made the playoffs this year.

The Raiders would follow that sharp trajectory. After the game, they will find themselves about $50 million over the salary cap next season. Considering the age of their core players, the Bucs probably have two more seasons of championship viability.

"Don't want to hear that -- it's all about winning now," Sapp said. "You never know when you're going to come this way again."

Home-grown products
Safety John Lynch arrived in 1993, a third-round draft choice out of Stanford. Two years later, Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks were first-round draft choices, from Miami and Florida State, respectively. That was the same year McKay -- the son of the franchise's first head coach, John McKay -- came on as general manager. In 1996, fullback Mike Alstott was a second-round pick from Purdue and in 1997 Virginia cornerback Ronde Barber was a third-round pick.

Brooks, Sapp, Lynch and Alstott all made the Pro Bowl this year, running the total Pro Bowl appearances for that core group of five players to a staggering 23.

"That's a lot of experience," Brooks said. "That's a lot of quality experience."

	“	I think the thing you learn in this league is it's not easy to get to where we are. Even though you know the reality of the playoffs is that if you lose you go home, the finality of it really does surprise you. ”
		— Bucs S John Lynch

Three years ago, the Buccaneers advanced to the NFC championship game in St. Louis. They shut down the high-scoring Rams, but lost 11-6. The Rams went on to win the Super Bowl, while the Bucs slid back into the pack of would-be champions.

"We were so close and so far," said Alstott, before this year's NFC title game at Philadelphia. "And that's where we are now -- so close and so far."

Said Lynch, "I think the thing you learn in this league is it's not easy to get to where we are. Even though you know the reality of the playoffs is that if you lose you go home, the finality of it really does surprise you."

The last two critical player additions come last year through free agency: quarterback Brad Johnson and defensive end Simeon Rice, from Washington and Arizona, respectively.

While running back Ricky Williams added juice to Miami and deposed Tampa Bay head coach Tony Dungy had a big impact on the Colts, the most important offseason transaction in the league was the deal that brought head coach Jon Gruden to Tampa Bay from the Raiders. The Glazer family parted with $8 million and four draft choices for the privilege and gave Gruden another $17.5 million in salary, hoping he could make the Bucs offense something better than serviceable.

It was a painful process.

"I don't think we fully understood exactly what Jon wanted in the offensive system," said receiver Keyshawn Johnson. "It took us 12 weeks to really get a handle on what he wanted. Me and a couple of other guys watched the film, and you could see us moving quickly in and out of our shifts. When you go back to October, it was kind of like, 'Do I go left? I got to go right?' "

Johnson came painfully close to the Super Bowl; the New York Jets lost to the Denver Broncos 23-10 in the 1998 AFC championship game. The Broncos won the Super Bowl and Johnson soon found himself traded to Tampa Bay.

"It seems like a really, really long time," Johnson said. "The one thing that was satisfying in all of it was when I was traded I got right to the playoffs. And when Coach Gruden was hired, he kind of gave us the spirit that we would get back to a championship game or even the Super Bowl."

Importing poise and commitment
In the end, it is the losses that linger.

Tim Brown, 36, is a Hall of Fame wide receiver, but he was 0-for-2 in conference championship games until last week's Oakland Raiders victory over the Tennessee Titans. He can still remember specific plays from the Raiders' 16-3 loss to the Ravens. Oakland, the conference's top seed, was playing at home, but fell to a wild-card team.

It was, in retrospect, a rite of passage, a necessary evil. Clearly, the Raiders weren't ready and the Ravens were. Two years later, the Raiders look ready.

"Even after the season last year, to think about what had happened in the Baltimore game was very tough," Brown said. "To actually see them sitting on the stage and doing that ceremony, it's not something you want to remember."

But Brown does remember. And that pain may ultimately set him free.

Gannon, who was forced to leave that championship game after he was crushed by defensive tackle Tony Siragusa, remembers, too. He is 37 and he has been working toward this game since he was drafted way back in 1987. He objects when his name is placed alongside the Browns and Rices and Woodsons.

"I don't know that I belong in that group," Gannon said. "I consider myself to be quite a grinder. I'm a guy who feels like he has to do special things, extra things to get himself on a level playing field with everybody else. That's always been my approach.

"If I can work harder than the next guy, do more to get ready for the game, then that's the advantage that I have."

Gannon was the league's MVP this year. He set an NFL record with 418 completions this year and threw for a career-high 4,689 yards and his passer rating of 97.3 was second in the league.

No fewer than 92 of Gannon's passes and 1,211 of those yards, belonged to Rice, who turned 40 during the season. He signed on in 2001, after a brilliant career in San Francisco after Raiders owner Al Davis vigorously recruited him.

"This team is totally different from the team that played the Ravens in the championship game," Rice said. "I think it's a closer team and a more talented team and a more experienced team. I feel good about our chances. All you ask for in life is an opportunity, and we have the opportunity now. It's just a matter of if we're going to step in that door and move forward."

	Romanowski

Romanowski, 36, was added to the roster before the season.

"One thing you can do is be a pro," Romanowski said. "Prepare. Do the right things. When you take the practice field it's about giving everything that you've got. When it comes to studying film, you watch film. It's about doing the right thing and when you take the field, you're ready to play and you let it all hang out."

"First and foremost, it's his ability to play the position," said Raiders head coach Bill Callahan. "I was with him in Philadelphia, and he's quite a leader. His work ethic is unique. He's there every day at seven in the morning and he doesn't usually leave until seven at night.

"The other players have picked up on that."

One of them was offensive tackle Barry Sims.

"He's brought so much of this team," Sims said. "His knowledge of how to take care of his body -- a lot of guys are learning how to prolong their careers and how to be fresher for games. He has also brought his specialists and doctors in to help work with the team."

Like Romanowski, Woodson joined the Raiders this season. At 37, Woodson is one of the finest defensive backs to ever play the game. He had 8 interceptions, running his career total to 69.

Woodson's true talent may lie in personnel; he is a shrewd judge of talent.

"Since I left Pittsburgh, I've made wise decisions on where to go next," Woodson said. "I went to San Francisco for a year and we got to the championship game and come up short. I saw the raw talent they had in Baltimore, and the third year there, we won it.

"I looked at what the Raiders had done the last couple of years and the talent they had coming back, and thought they'd have the opportunity to make a run."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.