DETROIT (AP) - Style points were hard to come by on Super Bowl Sunday, but the Steelers wouldn't have had it any other way. They defeated the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 to send Bettis out a winner after a game played only a few miles from where he grew up. "I hope they appreciate me, because we just brought a championship home," Bettis said. "One for the Thumb!"
After the game, Bettis said he was retiring, figuring there was no better exclamation point to put on a 13-year career that included all the accolades - except the title. His finale won't be remembered as a masterpiece, by any means. In fact, Mick Jagger moved up and down the field at halftime more easily than the Pittsburgh offense did most of the game.
But the Steelers did it, getting a handful of big plays and good enough defense to win their fifth title and their first since 1980. "It's almost unreal right now," coach Bill Cowher said. This marked the first title for the jut-jawed coach in his 14 years. When it was over, Cowher's stern face turned teary, as he hugged his wife and daughters, a much different scene than the one 10 years ago, when the Steelers lost in their last Super Bowl appearance and Cowher had to do most of the consoling. "I've been waiting a long time to do this. This is yours, man," Cowher said, as he proudly handed the Vince Lombardi Trophy to Steelers owner Dan Rooney.
On a day in which Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was less than mediocre, two plays made a difference: Willie Parker's record-setting 75-yard run for a touchdown right after halftime and receiver Antwaan Randle El's 43-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward on a trick play that put the Steelers up by 11 early in the fourth quarter.
Before that, it was Jagger and the Rolling Stones making the best moves. Jagger strutted his stuff during a three-song set, two of which contained foul language that the NFL chose to bleep out. Jagger showed a little tummy during his finale, "Satisfaction," but there was no reprisal of the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" this year thanks to the NFL censorship, along with ABC's decision to air the game on a five-second delay. The Stones were stars of a halftime show the NFL had longed for for years. The league took heat for choosing the Stones instead of a celebration of the Motown sound that has long defined Detroit. Still, Detroit got its due and Bettis was a great host.
He brought his teammates to dinner at his folks' house one night, hosted a charity bowling event another and, for the capper, won the Super Bowl. "To hear the ovation from the crowd, and to hear people I grew up with cheering for me in the Super Bowl, it was incredible," Bettis said of his hometown, a city that was staggered last month when Ford announced up to 30,000 job cuts. "It's better than I ever thought it would be." In between the Stones, Pittsburgh's big plays and a few nice rumbles by Bettis, America's 140 million viewers got their taste of the always anticipated Super Bowl commercials, aired at a cost of $2.5 million per 30 seconds.
Highlights included Kermit the Frog insisting it really is easy being green in an ad for a hybrid car, and a woman ending up in a compromising position after trying to awkwardly climb over a sleeping stranger in an airplane. There were reprises of the sad-sack guy in corporate America who literally works for a bunch of monkeys and a geezer needing to take oxygen after hearing "testimony" from a woman whose bra straps are about to pop.
One estimate said Americans would eat 30 million pounds of snacks on Super Bowl Sunday, adding up to an average of 1,200 calories and 50 grams of fat per person - and that was before actual meals or beers were factored into the equation.
That's the Super Bowl, though - a thoroughly American celebration, complete with all the excess and great stories that go with it. And while the Seahawks' unknown underdog story was compelling, nobody was a better fit for this one than the Steelers, with their blue-collar grit and guts and a star who had a chance to make good on his home stage. "That's the greatest feeling in the world, to hold that Lombardi Trophy, not because someone gave it to you, but because you earned it you won it,"
Bettis said. "It's a feeling I've been waiting for for 13 years and I'm just happy I got to hoist that trophy and bring it back to Pittsburgh."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
