ARLINGTON, Texas (AP)
– Aaron Rodgers at long last casts his own shadow.
All it took
was a Super Bowl victory for the Green Bay Packers.
Capping one of
the greatest postseasons for any quarterback, Rodgers led the Pack to
their first NFL championship in 14 years Sunday, 31-25 over the
Pittsburgh Steelers. They reclaimed the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named for
their legendary coach who won the first two Super Bowls and is making
his own star turn in New York in the play named after him.
Rodgers,
the game’s MVP, thrilled his legion of Cheesehead fans with a
spectacular six-game string that should finally erase the bitterness of
the Brett Favre separation in Green Bay. After sitting for three long
years before Favre left in 2008, Rodgers is now equal with Favre in
Super Bowl wins, and he extended the Packers’ record of NFL titles to
13, nine before the Super Bowl era.
“You can stop it now,” veteran
receiver Donald Driver said. “Aaron’s proved that he’s one of the best,
if not the best, quarterback in this game today.”
You could say
it means this: Forget Lombardi on Broadway, Green Bay has the newest
Super Bowl hit.
The favored Packers managed to overcome key
injuries, building a 21-3 lead, then hung on to become only the second
No. 6 seed to win the championship. Coincidentally, the 2005 Steelers
were the other.
“Wow! It’s a great day to be great, baby,” said
Greg Jennings, who caught two of Rodgers’ three touchdown passes.
Rodgers
threw for 304 yards, including a 29-yard touchdown to Jordy Nelson, who
had nine catches for 140 yards to make up for three big drops. Rodgers
found Jennings, normally his favorite target, for 21- and 8-yard scores.
“We’ve
been a team that’s overcome adversity all year,” Jennings said, who
noted injuries to Charles Woodson and Driver. “Our head captain goes
down, emotional in the locker room. Our No. 1 receiver goes down, more emotions are going, flying in the locker room.
But we find a way to bottle it up and exert it all out here on the
field.”
Woodson was in so much pain from a broken left collarbone
that he could barely address the team at halftime in the locker room.
Few
teams have been as resourceful as these Packers, who couldn’t wait to
touch the trophy honoring their greatest coach – and their title.
Several of them kissed it as Cowboys great Roger Staubach, walked
through a line of green and gold, and up to the massive stage on the
50-yard line with the silver prize that is headed back to the NFL’s
smallest city.
“That is where it belongs,” linebacker A.J. Hawk
said. “As long as the Packers have lived, it’s going to be great to
bring that back.”
Rodgers took the Packers to two late-season
victories just to make the playoffs as a wild card. Then he guided them
to wins at Philadelphia, Atlanta and archrival Chicago before his
biggest achievement – against a Pittsburgh team ranked second in
defense.
They barely survived a sensational rally by the Steelers,
who still own the most Super Bowl rings – six in eight tries. But
Pittsburgh failed to get its third championship in six years, despite
several valiant efforts by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger’s season began with a four-game suspension for violating
the NFL’s personal conduct policy. It ended with Roethlisberger standing
on the sideline, his head down, hands on his hips, feeling something he
never experienced: defeat in a Super Bowl.
“I feel like I let the
city of Pittsburgh down, the fans, my coaches and my teammates and it’s
not a good feeling,” said Roethlisberger, who later buried his head in a
towel and wept.
Not even a decidedly black-and-gold crowd, with
Terrible Towels swirling throughout the $1.2 billion stadium, could make
a difference for the mistake-prone Steelers, who had three turnovers to
none for Green Bay. Their two biggest defensive stars – Defensive
Player of the Year safety Troy Polamalu and outside linebacker James
Harrison – were virtually invisible. The offense didn’t seem to miss
outstanding rookie center Maurkice Pouncey, who was out with an ankle
injury, but Roethlisberger only occasionally made key plays until the
second half.
The biggest plays were left to Rodgers, Nick Collins
with a 37-yard interception return for a TD, Jennings, Nelson, and the
rest of the guys in green and gold. In the end, they gave coach Mike
McCarthy his first Super Bowl victory against the team he rooted for
while growing up in Pittsburgh. Besides Lombardi, Mike Holmgren won a
title in 1997 with Favre.
McCarthy was so certain of victory he
fitted the players for championship rings on Saturday night – a move
sure to go down in Super Bowl lore.
“That was just a vote of
confidence for us,” Woodson said. “Get fitted for your ring. I don’t
know when we’ll get them, but it’ll fit.”
Woodson saw the
Steelers, who rallied from a 21-7 halftime hole against Baltimore three
weeks ago, show the same resilience. A 37-yard catch and run by Antwaan
Randle El – an almost forgotten figure during his return season with
just 22 receptions – sparked a quick 77-yard drive. Hines Ward, the 2006
Super Bowl MVP, had 39 yards on three catches during the series,
including an 8-yard TD when he completely fooled Jarrett Bush.
A
quick defensive stop and a 50-yard drive to Rashard Mendenhall’s 8-yard
touchdown run made it 21-17. But with coach Mike Tomlin’s team driving
for perhaps its first lead of the game, Mendenhall was stripped at the
Green Bay 33 by Clay Matthews – one of the few plays the All-Pro
linebacker made. The Packers recovered, and Rodgers hit Jennings for 8
yards and the winning points.
Pittsburgh’s last score was on a
25-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace and a brilliant pitchout by
Roethlisberger to Randle El for a 2-point conversion, making it 28-25
with 7:34 left.
Mason Crosby added a 23-yard field goal for the
Packers and the Steelers had no more comebacks in them like the one
Roethlisberger staged to win the Super Bowl two years ago. He missed on
his last three passes in the final moments.
“You play to be world
champions,” Matthews said, “and that’s what we are today.”
The
game capped an interesting weather week in Dallas for the teams and fans
alike.
Snow and ice caused traffic snarls, canceled flights and
caused injuries to six people when it fell from the roof of the stadium.
Sunny skies and milder temperatures returned Sunday, but issues arose
with seats at the game.
A total of 1,250
temporary seats were considered unsafe hours before kickoff. Even while
the teams were warming up on the field, workers were trying to fix the
problems – many involving seats carrying pricetags of $800 and up.
About
400 people with tickets couldn’t be seated inside the stadium and the
league offered refunds of triple the ticket price.
At least the
Packers and Steelers put on a terrific show after Christina Aguilera
botched the lyrics to the national anthem.
Rodgers hit Nelson in
stride with a long pass on Green Bay’s first series, but the wideout let
it slide through his hands. The Pack had discovered something, though,
and went back to that play for the first touchdown. Nelson beat William
Gay and held on for a 7-0 lead; the Packers have scored first in all
five Super Bowl appearances.
Just 24 seconds later, they were
ahead by 14. Throwing from his end zone, Roethlisberger’s arm was hit by
backup nose tackle Howard Green. The ball fluttered to the Pittsburgh
37, where Collins settled under it, then scooted down the right sideline
and dived into the end zone for the 13th interception return for a
score. Teams doing so are now 11-0 in Super Bowls.
Needing to get
busy or get buried, Pittsburgh put together a 13-play drive to Shaun
Suisham’s 33-yard field goal. Then, after moving well again, Mike
Wallace’s pass was stolen from his hands by Bush at the Pittsburgh 46.
Rodgers
coolly completed passes to Jennings and Nelson, James Starks ran for 12
yards as Polamalu whiffed on a tackle, then Jennings reached high and
slightly behind to snag a 21-yarder over Polamalu for a 21-3 edge.
“I
had some opportunities to make some plays,” Polamalu said. “I was just
off a step here or there.”
