Pitarresi: Steelers earned this one

 

I really wanted to see Kurt Warner and the Cardinals win the Super Bowl. It would have been a great story. A team that is without a championship since 1947. A quarterback who has made one of the greatest comebacks ever ... and who still has a sensational arm and a great competitive spirit. I hope he comes back.

 

I can’t be too upset, though. Ben Roethlisberger, Santonio Holmes, James Harrison and the Steelers earned this one.

 

And so did Dick LeBeau, the Steelers’ ancient defensive coordinator, even if his team gave up more than 200 yards in the fourth quarter. I always liked LeBeau as a player – a former star for Woody Hayes at Ohio State, he played in a great Lions secondary with Night Train Lane and Yale Lary – because he was good, because he wore number 44, which at the time I thought was a very cool number, and because he had an interesting name. LeBeau means “the handsome” or “the beautiful” or whatever. Hey, I was like 11 or 12 at the time.

 

There were any number of big plays in this game, but perhaps the biggest was Harrison’s 100-yard interception return for a touchdown at the end of the first half. The Cardinals were set to go up 14-10 or at least tie the game, but that play made it 17-7 Steelers. Who knows what would have happened if the Cardinals had scored, but maybe they would have been rolling and wouldn’t have had to make that furious fourth-quarter comeback.

 

The play was a great one by Harrison. I thought perhaps LeBeau, working off tendencies, decided to fake a blitz and get Harrison in the way of a quick slant. Harrison said, however, the Steelers had a maximum blitz called, but he didn’t go and instead guessed. He guessed right, dropping a couple of steps right into the passing lane in front of Anquan Boldin. If Warner saw him, he saw him too late, and threw the ball right to him. The rest is history.

 

LeBeau called the played the greatest defensive play in Super Bowl history. It’s tough to argue with that.