Tuesday, February 03, 2009
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com
Kent Phillips/Associated Press
Super Bowl XLIII MVP Pittsburgh Steelers' Santonio Holmes rides in a celebratory parade with Mickey Mouse yesterday in Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
TAMPA, Fla. -- Disney World, Super celebrations and sports lore had to wait.
Early yesterday morning, the Super Bowl MVP, star of professional football's world stage and stretched-to-his-fullest creator of the play that ESPN immediately heralded as the Super Bowl's greatest was curling up with his three children and their cartoon friends.
"I just wanted to spend time with my kids," Santonio Holmes said yesterday morning after a 27-23, stirring Steelers triumph, garbed in an argyle vest, untucked shirt, denims and smile. "I went up to the [hotel] room. I fed them. Put on a movie. They were very excited about watching 'Madagascar 2.' We just spent a little time together watching. I really just stayed in and relaxed a lot."
The company of Bill Mazeroski's 1960 Game 7 Pirates homer and Plaxico Burress' Giants catch in last February's Super Bowl at the same 35-seconds-left mark and any other championship-clinching athlete you can find on that mantel of last-minute brilliance? Nah. The nova of Super Bowl XLIII much preferred Santonio III, 6, Nicori, 4, and Saniya, 2, along with Alex the lion, Marty the zebra and Melman the giraffe.
From the tips of his toes to the tips of his fingers, Holmes the receiver earlier reached out among a maze of three Arizona Cardinals defenders and touched both a magical moment and the Magic Kingdom, where he visited yesterday -- the trip to Disney World that awaits Super Bowl stars. He earned the short, hour-long trip from Tampa to Orlando with a catch that covered 6 yards and a sixth Steelers championship and an expanse of history. Only Burress had secured any of the previous 42 Super Bowls with a winning touchdown in the final minute, and his was a mundane reception by comparison. Only Maz in the bottom of the ninth had ever delivered Pittsburgh such a momentous championship instant.
Strangely, to Holmes, his was an instant of gratification and redemption.
The play before his touchdown catch in the back, right corner of the end zone, Holmes let Ben Roethlisberger's pass slip through his hands in the back, left corner of the end zone.
"It was a play that I should have made," said this third-year veteran from Ohio State and Belle Glade, Fla., about where he spoke earlier in Super Bowl week that he felt forced to sell drugs as a youth. "Ben put the ball where only I could catch it. I took my eyes off it because I was trying to get my feet down ... and just lost sight of the ball.
"Coming back [the next play], Ben had the faith in me, believing that I could be the one to make that play."
Actually, Roethlisberger looked elsewhere first. A couple of elsewheres, to be precise.
Overtime amid this 23-20 deficit was a Jeff Reed field goal away, but why tempt fate after blowing a 20-7 lead? So, seeking a pass into the end zone, he pumped right toward the first option (the fullback in the flat), left (Heath Miller), right again (Hines Ward), and then motioned toward Holmes. He fired. He hoped.
The Cardinals' Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was in front, Ralph Brown behind and Aaron Francisco was hurtling toward Holmes. Three defenders. One 5-foot-11 Holmes.
Toes down. Fingertips out. Touchdown.
"I ... thought it was going to be picked," Roethlisberger said. "A heck of a catch."
"Great catch," said Cardinals star safety Adrian Wilson.
"Great game," added Cardinals safety Antrel Rolle, who noticed Holmes' career-high nine catches for 131 yards -- two short of his career high yet more this night than amazing Larry Fitzgerald of Pitt. "He really showed me a lot. He was their clutch player."
On that final drive, Holmes accounted for 73 of the Steelers' 88 yards. On first-and-20 after a holding penalty, Roethlisberger avoided a near sack at the Arizona 1 and hit Holmes up the seam for 14 yards. One play later, on third-and-6, Holmes pulled in a 13-yard gain among heavy Arizona traffic. Two plays after that, when Francisco slipped, Holmes darted upfield on a 40-yard gain to the Cardinals' 6 with just 48 seconds to go. You know the rest: Holmes missed one left, made The One right.
"Santonio Holmes had just an extraordinary night," offered no less a source than NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. "It was really something to marvel at."
In the joyous locker room, Miller couldn't recall the name of the ring-winning play: "I can't even tell you, to be honest."
Linebacker James Harrison, whose 100-yard interception return for a touchdown was the longest and perhaps biggest play in Super Bowl history but was eclipsed by the brightness of Holmes' moment, called the play: "Oh my God, I don't believe it."
Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians said simply it was a 62 Scat Flasher.
So ended the flash of a year by Holmes, the Steelers' playmaker when it counted most. He had the debated 4-yard touchdown to win in Baltimore. He had the 67-yard punt return to jump-start his team against San Diego in the divisional round. He had the 65-yard touchdown play to help beat Baltimore in the AFC championship game. Then this.
"He's a star of the future," Arians said.
"He can go where no receiver has gone," added Roethlisberger.
"I told him [Sunday] morning, 'Players make names for themselves in games like this,' " continued an ailing but crying Hines Ward.
Holmes earned nicknames earlier in the season, when City police pulled over his SUV and found marijuana blunts between the front seats. He was deactivated for the next game, against the then-undefeated New York Giants at Heinz Field.
"The next day I came into work after that happened, I decided I would have a meeting with coach Tomlin," Holmes recalled. "He told me how he felt, and that he said he was going to handle the situation accordingly. At first, I didn't want to hear that from my head coach -- I was hoping that he would trust my word that nothing went wrong. But I see he put me in a better situation by handling the situation firsthand, getting the distractions away from the team and away from myself, and allowing me to come back to the team the following week ready to go."
"You know, when you work the way we work with these players, you're a life coach in a lot of ways," Tomlin said after ascending to the morning-after news conference podium after Holmes. "You care about them, you do. And I embrace that as much as I do the X's and O's. I probably get more enjoyment out of watching people grow than preparing and winning football games. I believe it's what we're all called to do."
So what to call this catch? After all, Pittsburgh sports lore is rife with nicknames.
Holmes pledged, "I'll definitely have a name for that play when it's all said and done."
Anyone for ... the Immaculate Extension?
Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com.
First published on February 3, 2009 at 12:00 am
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