One of the best.
One of the best Super Bowls ever. That’s two in a row.
Pittsburgh Steelers 27, Arizona Cardinals 23.
For a good portion of the game, it looked like it was going to be one of those ho-hum affairs, and order would be restored.
Instead, Kurt Warner and the Cardinals mounted a serious comeback in the fourth quarter, and made it a jump-out-your-seat contest.
I was at a friend’s house in Seminole, with maybe 25 folks, and almost everyone was pulling for Arizona. When Larry Fitzgerald caught a long touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter, it looked like another titanic Super Bowl upset was in the making. Instead, Ben Roesthlisberger led the Steelers on a drive that culminated in an acrobatic catch by Santonio Holmes to take the lead.
A lead that held. With 29 seconds left, Warner took the helm, and Arizona backers fantasized about Fitzgerald making another one of his leaping, circus catches in the end zone for a Cardinal win.
It was not to be.
Still, it ended up being a terrific game to watch, even though it was a bit heartbreaking to see the Cards, who haven’t won an NFL championship since 1947, come up short.
A close-up of Fitzgerald, wide-eyed, saying, “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” told the story.
The game had everything to excite watchers, including a 100-yard interception return at the end of the first half by Steelers’s linebacker James Harrison that proved to be a major swing.
The referees played a big part in the outcome, having to decide several replays, and throwing penalty flags at crucial times. But TV replays showed that they made the right calls, although it was curious that they didn’t review the last Cardinals play, in which it was ruled the Warner fumbled.
It appeared, at the very least, that the officials should’ve looked at the play to see if Warner was in his throwing motion, which would have resulted in an incomplete pass, and one more chance for Warner to heave a hail mary, possibly giving Fitzgerald one more chance.
Instead, the Steelers walked away with a record sixth Super Bowl trophy in a game that will be remembered fondly by football fans for decades to come.
Cards betters were happy. The Steelers did not cover the 7-point spread.
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2009.