My thoughts before the dust settles and my buffalo wings buzz wears off:

  • For three and a half quarters, that game was pure torture.  I love football, but I would have been looking for Scrubs reruns if I was watching by myself.
  • But when the game burst into life, it created quite a mushroom cloud.  The swings of emotion and displays of athletic skill were the stuff of legend. 
  • You won't see a better postseason from a wide receiver than Larry Fitzgerald's.  Not only did he carry Arizona to the threshold of immortality, but he did it with a classiness that is rarely displayed by his contemporaries.   
  • Santonio Holmes, "Hello World!"
  • Why did it take so long for the Cardinals to junk the running game and air it out?  I know left tackle Mike Gandy could not block a Girl Scout without holding, but it was clearly their only chance.  The Cards overthought their entire gameplan.  Why was Larry Fitzgerald used as a decoy in the first half?
  • I'm glad the referees evened out the calls in the end.  Otherwise, my lead would have compared this horror show to the Steelers last controversial Super Bowl win over the Seahawks. 
  • With that said, these refs were truly terrible.  From terrible calls (Karlos Dansby's Roughing the QB) to overturned challenges (even Al Michaels commented on how rare it is for a coach to get two challenges right in one game), the zebras were just way too involved. 
  • Right up until the end of course, when they decided not to review the deciding play of the Super Bowl for some ungodly reason.  How do you not even take a look at Kurt Warner's fumble?  It's the Super Bowl!  I'm not saying they would have overturned it, but I have seen many similar plays called forward passes.
  • Speaking of things to look into, how does the NFC win 12 straight coin tosses?  Also, why didn't the Cards take the ball and get their best unit on the field first?
  • I've never been a huge fan of Ben Roethlisberger because he can be careless with the football.  But when the Steelers got the ball with 2:30 left, I was sure that the game was at least headed to overtime.  That's probably the greatest compliment anyone can give to a quarterback.
  • In the interest of objectivity, where did my man Troy Polamalu go on Larry Fitzgerald's second touchdown catch?  He made a Super Bowl losing mistake by vacating the middle of the field.
  • People just love to make the safety signal.  The Cards would have picked up their safety a play earlier if their linebackers had pulled Willie Parker back instead of making safety celebrations in the end zone.  
  • James Harrison's INT-TD was the ultimate swing play.  The Steelers may have ended up on top anyway, but it's a completely different game if Warner makes the right read on the goalline. 
  • The Steelers made their last Super Bowl because Roethlisberger made a great tackle on a similar play against the Colts.  Kurt Warner might be a Hall of Fame QB, but he's a Pop Warner tackler.
  • The whole world agrees that Omar Epps would star in The Mike Tomlin Story, but who would star in The Ken Whisenhunt Story?  I went with Aaron Eckhart (the guy who played "Two-Face" in Dark Knight).
  • I took a straw poll from our Super Bowl party and the Cash4Gold.com commercial was the winner.  If you missed it, it included M.C. Hammer delivering the line, "...or a gold medallion of me wearing a gold medallion."  Where does Cash4Gold come up with the budget to purchase Super Bowl commercials and pay Hammer his $10 per hour appearance fee?
  • The Office delivered as well as it has in a long time.  "I know where I know you from...the parking lot."  The more they write for Creed the better.