Super Bowl XLIII

Super Bowled Over

It was billed as a Super Bowl of contrasts. A stingy, opportunistic defence against a high-octane, opportunistic offense; a traditionally run-first team against one that has no qualms about airing the ball to a fleet of talented and fast young receivers; a gridiron stalwart chasing its sixth Lombardi Trophy against a perennial joke making its first Super Bowl appearance; East Coast against West; a young quarterback who landed his place in the team in only the second game of his first season, against a veteran counterpart who worked the fields of NFL Europe and the AFL before winning two MVP awards and settling in, it seemed, for backup roles in his twilight years. The main point in common: two second-year head coaches trying to look as if they were not overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation and the unforgettable game Super Bowl XLIII promised to be.

And boy did the Steelers and the Cardinals deliver.

In what is already being considered one of the best three Super Bowls, the game confounded expectations by, at times, almost reversing the roles the candidates were supposed to play. Arizona’s goal-line stand, for example, forcing the Steelers to kick a field goal even after a new set of downs following a penalty, was reminiscent of Pittsburgh’s own suffocating D, while the game-winning drive that ended in a crisp pass to Santonio Holmes seemed straight out of Arizona’s book. The result: an exciting rollercoaster of a game that, despite the result, did little to establish a winning side in this war of contrasts. True, the Steelers won, but, to do so, they needed some of the Cardinals’ game, while the latter required elements of the former to keep it as close as they did. Ultimately, it was perhaps experience, or maybe penalties, or maybe James Harrison’s cardiac arrest-inducing run, that pushed the balance in favour of the NFL’s sole leader in Super Bowl triumphs.

To be honest, I thought the Steelers were going to win it easily. To think so, though, was to underestimate Messrs Warner and Fitzgerald. Warner’s story added the required touch of romance to the game, with visions of everyone’s favourite plucky underdog riding off into retirement with his second Lombardi in tow at the forefront of our minds. Fitzgerald was going to be the new Jerry Rice, stepping up in the Big Game and seal the deal as the League’s best receiver (something he has accomplished already anyway). And the Cardinals – THE CARDINALS – were going to win the Super Bowl.

But it was not to be. In a game with a long tradition of big plays – The Catch, The Drive, The Tackle At The One-Yard Line – it was only appropriate that it was decided by a player with a long tradition of big plays. It is easy to forget that Ben Roethlisberger got his team to Super Bowl XL, not through a pass or a sneaky run, but through a tackle following a goal-line fumble. The man has a knack for making the big plays and, with less than a minute left and down by three points, there is no-one else not called Brady or (Peyton) Manning who I would much rather have leading my team. The oft-sacked Big Ben showed an Eli-esque ability to elude tackles and make big plays downfield, none less than the awfully risky pass to Holmes in the corner of the endzone. It could so easily have gone wrong. An interception, or even simply a deflection, by any of the numerous defenders playing the pass, and it would have been a different ending. But that is the thing about the Super Bowl: the high-risk play somehow succeeds, and that is what makes it so good.

And, in this case, so truly special.