Good to the Last Drop

2 February 2009



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Steelers Win Most Entertaining Super Bowl Ever

Super Bowl XLIII (the NFL's pompous way of advertising it) was something most of its predecessors were not, entertaining to the end. With just seconds to go, the Arizona Cardinal's porous defense let the Pittsburgh Steelers sneak back into the lead. For once, the game was good enough to make the halftime show and the commercials secondary to the game itself.

The Cardinals started out wobbly but found their pace as the second quarter was coming to an end. Down 10-7, they were threatening to finish the half with a touchdown, or at very least a tying field goal. Instead, the Steelers' defensive player of the year, James Harrison, intercepted an ill-advised Kurt Warner pass on the goal line and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown, the longest playin Super Bowl history. Arizona was down 10 at the half rather than leading by 4.

In the second half, the Steelers had to settle for a field goal rather than a touchdown to go up 20-7. Mr. Warner suddenly discovered his passing game and found Larry Fitzgerald in the end zone, 20-14. Then, the Steelers screwed up in their own end zone with a stupid penalty, resulting in a safety. Arizona had trimmed the lead to 20-16 and they got possession of the ball. Another touchdown with just over 2:30 to play gave them a 23-20 lead.

Mike Lupica of New York's Daily News wrote, “there was 2:30 left for Ben Roethlisberger. A lifetime for a championship quarterback. He hadn't played like a championship quarterback in Detroit when he'd won his first Super Bowl. This time he did. This time he was every great quarterback who had brought his team down the field in a moment like this. He would throw it four times on the last drive to Santonio Holmes . . . . The one that set everything up for the Steelers, set them up to win the sixth Super Bowl, was a 40-yard play from Roethlisberger to Holmes that took the Steelers to the Cardinals' 6-yard line with 49 seconds left.” Fourteen seconds of time ran off the clock before Mr. Holmes caught the ball struggling to keep both feet in bounds and putting Pittsburgh ahead to good.

At halftime, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band put together a 12-minute set that made one wonder what all the fuss was ever about. Anthems about life in 1970s New Jersey just don't sail, and probably never did one one gets off the Garden State Thruway. Fortunately, no one had a “wardrobe malfunction.”

The commercials were largely unmemorable. The Budweiser Clydesdales were trotted out to sell America's favorite dishwater; the talking baby at eTrade tried to convince investors to buy; and Doritos offered everyone comic book violence as part of the nacho chip experience.

Sadly, the big game yesterday went to Liverpool who beat Chelsea 2-0, just about ending the Blues hopes for a Premiership title. There was no halftime show.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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