That team was tasked with creating a complete IT operation for Super Bowl XLIII in a matter of weeks. Its coaches are Joe Manto, the NFL's vice president of IT, and Jon Kelly, the league's director of infrastructure computing. Their opponent is the same one that IT managers face everywhere: anything that can threaten and uptime.

It doesn't help matters that one of the four systems being used in Tampa is located on a wood floor in a tent that lacks any climate control capabilities. But so far, so good - and with the four BladeCenter boxes at different locations, and ready to provide redundancy, neither Mantos nor Kelly seem all that worried.

"It's very exciting for IT guys," Mantos said of the experience of setting up a systems infrastructure for the Super Bowl. It's unlike most IT projects, which involve creating systems that will provide ongoing support to users. Instead, the seven-day-a-week effort in Tampa has a short lifespan and a clear and unmovable deadline.

"That game is going to kick off on Sunday no matter what happens," Mantos said. And by Tuesday, the IT equipment will be disassembled, packed and shipped out of Tampa. "It's really an open-and-closed operation, which is sort of unique in the IT world," he said.

The IT staff has set up systems in a hotel to support business operations for about 200 NFL employees who are onsite in Tampa. It also has also built a tech operation at the convention center in Tampa to support 3,500 media representatives who are covering the event; that setup includes wireless networking and automated access to NFL data.