THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TAMPA - Super Super Bowls are becoming a habit.
The Steelers' 27-23 win Sunday night against Arizona was another classic in an era of great games - "a game for the ages," commissioner Roger Goodell called it.
Indeed, with a few exceptions (notably Ravens 34, Giants 7 in 2001) fans have been treated to a decade's worth of rousing NFL championships.
Consider that the typical Super Bowl score from 1980-99 was 35-17.
But starting in 2000, when Tennessee's Kevin Dyson was tackled a yard short of the goal-line with what would have been the tying touchdown in a 23-16 loss to St. Louis, the games have generally been what they were always supposed to be - worthy of their immense hype.
Six of the last 10 Super Bowls have been decided by a touchdown or less. Whatever the reason - luck, greater parity, never-say-die teams - the NFL has reason to smile.
The Rams' winning score against the Titans came on a 73-yard touchdown pass with 1:53 to Isaac Bruce from Kurt Warner, who brought the Cardinals back from a 13-point deficit Sunday before the Steelers' final drive.
Warner also had to watch from the sidelines in 2002, as Tom Brady drove the Patriots to the winning field goal against the Rams.
It wasn't the only similarity Sunday to Super Bowls past. In some ways, this year's edition mirrored last season's.
The winning touchdown came on a pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds left in the game, the same time remaining as when the Giants scored to beat New England 17-14 a year ago. The Steelers' game-winning drive started from their own 22 with 2:42 left in the game; the Giants' drive began from their 17 with 2:39 remaining.
Holmes was voted the game's MVP with nine catches for 131 yards. It was redemption for him in two ways.
The play before his game-winning touchdown on tiptoes, he had missed what seemed to be an easier throw on the opposite side of the end zone. And in midseason, he was suspended for one game by Steelers coach Mike Tomlin after being found with marijuana after a traffic stop by Pittsburgh police.
"I learned a lot from that," Holmes said. "I've grown a lot."
Goodell added: "Santonio grabbed me as we were coming off the podium and said, 'Thank you for believing in me.'"
Holmes' acrobatics made a winner of Tomlin in only his second year as Pittsburgh's coach.
The 36-year-old Tomlin guided the Steelers to an unprecedented sixth Super Bowl title. After a short night, he told reporters Monday he's appreciating the Steelers and their fans more all the time.
"It's generational," he said. "It's passed down from father to son. The more I'm in the organization, the more I understand it. It's part of the fabric of people's lives."
It's a game Pittsburghers certainly will remember for a long time. It might even have been the best in the recent run of title-game dramas, played out before an estimated TV audience of 95.4 million - second only to last year's Super Bowl for U.S. ratings.
