The STEELERS are SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!

It's been twelve hours since it happened and I still can't get over the fact that the Steelers are champs once again. I was born in the 80's and never got to see the reign of the 70's Steelers. After year after year of disapointment of the Steelers getting so close to winning, they finally won Super Bowl XL. It wasn't one of the greatest Super Bowls ever played, but I still thought it was one of the greatest games ever. I finally got to see my team be like those great Super Bowl teams of the 70's.

I saw the schedule for this season, which was the toughest regular season schedule in NFL history, that if the Steelers make the playoffs, they will win the Super Bowl. They would be so playoff tested from playing 16 tough games that the playoffs would be a breeze. While it wasn't all easy, they still pulled it out and here's the recap from a Steelers fan's point of view in case you lived under a rock and didn't watch the game.

The first quarter was all Steelers. They marched down the field and got the field goal. The touchdown that was reversed was the right call. Roethlisberger did not get in the end zone when his knee touched. That was the exact play I said they should've done. when he was in Pittsburgh, Coach Whisenhunt called on Ben Roethlisberger to run a bootleg to the left in Super Bowl XL in the first quarter. I do, however, thought they should've gone for the touchdown instead of the field goal. One, it's six inches. If you can't gain six inches on a QB Sneak with a 235 pound QB, you don't deserve to score any points. Two, even if the Steelers don't get the touchdown, the Cardinals get the ball on the 1 and the best defense in the NFL can easily get a safety. Hell, the Cardinals did it later in the game.

The Cardinals got it going in the second quarter. First impressions on the Cardinals were that they were too tentative on offense. They ran too much instead of targeting Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, and Steve Breaston. If the Cardinals just allowed Kurt Warner to throw lobs to Fitzgerald so he can only catch the ball, the Cardinals would've dominated the entire game instead of only the 2nd half. The half was defined by James Harrison with the longest play in Super Bowl history.



I was prepared for the Cardinals to kick the field goal and tie the game. This changed everything in the game. As far as whether he scored or not. I saw it that Harrison had the ball on Fitzgerald's leg and he was clearly in the endzone. The rule about being down is that the elbow or the knee must touch the ground for someone to be down by contact. The helmet doesn't count and I thought it was an easy touchdown. James Harrison was the overwhelming choice for MVP at that time.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed in the Halftime Show and I have to say I was disapointed in the performance. It wasn't really Bruce's fault, but in the HD feed, I could barely hear him. The sound was horrible and that brought down the performance in my opinion.

The second half was all Cardinals. I thought the Steelers were too conservative for the Cardinals. I know the Steelers have historically been conservative when they have the lead in the second half, but you don't do it against a great passing team like the Cardinals. The Cardinals are never out of it and the Steelers should've known better.

I just have one thing to say about the James Harrison punchng that caused the Steelers to be on the 1 yard line. He should've been tossed from the game. That was no excuse for what he did and it almost doomed the Steelers. Due to a holding penalty in the end zone, the Cardinals got a safety and were only down by four points. The Steelers conservative nature got the better of them and Fitzgerald got an long, easy touchdown.

Now, with 2:30 in the game, that is plenty of time to get a Super Bowl winning drive going. We've seen great winning drives in the Super Bowl in past years, but never a winning drive where the same two players are involved in every important play of the drive.



Ben Roethlisberger always looked up to Quarterbacks like John Elway and Joe Montana. Two Quarterbacks known for comebacks in big games. Now, Ben Roethlisberger is with that pantheon of great Quarterbacks and is now a lock to go to the Hall of Fame. As for Santonio Holmes, I forever regret about thinking the Steelers were wrong to trade up in the NFL Draft to select you. I wanted Sinorice Moss and thank goodness the Steelers didn't listen to me. With the catch at the end, the camera angle showed that Holmes was possibly pushed out of bounds and I thought that would be what would deny them the touchdown. That was a great catch and was what saved the game for the Steelers.



I liked the fact that Joe Namath presented the Vince Lombardi Ttrophy. The story about Namath and the '68 Jets is a great story and I'll write something about them in the future. I have always been a Namath fan and he's from western Pennsylvania, so it was fitting. It also must've meant something for Namath, because the last time he was a prominate figure at an NFL game, he was publically drunk and hit on a sideline reporter on live, national tv. He since gotten control of his drinking and now he's turned his life around.

All in all, it was really one of the legendary Super Bowls. It might not have been the greatest ever, but it was in the top 10 of Super Bowl games. Now I must leave and get one of those Super Bowl Champion T-Shirts and Hats. They really look nice.