Steelers end Super Bowl drought
2006-02-06 07:12
Detroit - Ben Roethlisberger and Willie Parker ran in for touchdowns as Pittsburgh beat Seattle 21-10 on Sunday to win Super Bowl 40, ending a 26-year title drought with the most unlikely championship march in American football history.
The Steelers were the first sixth seed to reach the Super Bowl after road upsets of top American Conference seeds Indianapolis, Denver and Cincinnati, then completed an amazing playoff run by outlasting the National Conference's kings.
Pittsburgh matched Dallas and San Francisco for the all-time record of five Super Bowl triumphs, giving tearful coach Bill Cowher and rusher Jerome Bettis their first National Football League titles in more than a decade of trying.
The longest active NFL run by a coach
Only four NFL coaches had won more games without claiming a crown than Cowher, whose 14 years with the Steelers is the longest active NFL run by a coach with the same club.
"I've been waiting a long time," Cowher said. "We're taking this baby back home and putting it in the trophy room."
Parker scored on a 75-yard run, the longest rushing play in Super Bowl history, and Roethlisberger dove one yard for a touchdown to give the Steeler defence all the margin it would need.
Roethlisberger became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, taking the title from New England's Tom Brady.
"Big Ben" improved to 27-4 as a starter and made good on a title vow to Bettis, a 13-year veteran who ranks fifth on the all-time rushing list.
The bulky rusher known as "The Bus" vowed to park himself for good after taking the title in his hometown, calling his decision "official like the referee's whistle."
"There's always a time when you have to call it quits," Bettis said. "It is an ending. It has been an incredible ride. I came back to win a championship. Mission accomplished. Now I have to bid farewell.
"My teammates put me on their back and they wouldn't let me down. They were tremendous."
Super Bowl Most Valuable Player
A trick-play touchdown pass involving two receivers gave Pittsburgh a 21-10 lead with 8min 56sec remaining, collegiate quarterback Antwaan Randle El taking a handoff and flipping a 43-yard throw to Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Hines Ward for the score. Ward finished with five catches for 123 yards.
"Antwaan made a great play at the right time," he said. "It was a great pass."
That proved to be the final blow. No team in Super Bowl history had rallied from more than a 10-point deficit to win, and since Cowher became coach in 1992, the Steelers had a 100-1-1 record in games they lead by at least 11 points.
The Steelers won prior titles in 1975, 1976, 1979 and 1980 but lost their only Super Bowl in 1996 to Dallas in Cowher's only prior Super Bowl.