[url="www.2008jersey.com"]TAMPA, Fla. -- Santonio Holmes sat on the grass alongside the end zone -- legs[/url]
outstretched, head bowed, arms wrapped tightly around the ball.
He'd come too far to let go.
Holmes, who overcame a gritty childhood in rural south Florida, will leave Florida this week with a Super Bowl MVP to his credit.
Holmes made a brilliant catch with 35 seconds left to give the Pittsburgh Steelers their record sixth Super Bowl title, a 27-23 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday night.
That finish was a classic. This one was even better.
"The first read was the running back in the flat, but he wasn't open," Roethlisberger said. "Then I was going to try to bang it to Hines (Ward, MVP of Super Bowl XL), but someone was closing in on it and I was a little nervous about it. It wouldn't have been a touchdown. I looked back, scrambled a little bit and saw (Holmes) in the corner. I tried to throw it high so he was going to catch it, or no one was.
"Luckily, he made a heck of a play."
Holmes was so good -- nine catches for 131 yards, four of them on the winning 78-yard drive -- that he actually managed to outshine teammate James Harrison, who seemed to be a shoe-in for the MVP award through three quarters.
"Santonio is a guy who just loves to deliver," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.
Harrison, the NFL's defensive player of the year, returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the first half. The longest play in Super Bowl history gave the Steelers a 17-7 lead heading to the locker room, and they stretched it to 20-7 after three periods.
