There really is only one thing you need to know:

1. The Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl.
But don’t worry, I’m still going to give you 9 things you need to know about the game to make it through the conversations today. You can’t get by just knowing the teams, the score and the commercials!

• They beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23
• The final 5:00 of the game were as thrilling as a NCAA March Madness game
• This is the Steelers sixth Super Bowl win: 1974, 1974, 1978, 1979, 2005, 2008
• They are the first team in NFL history to win more than five!
• Head Coach Mike Tomlin is the youngest coach to ever win a Super Bowl—he is the second African-American coach to win.

2. Santonio Holmes

You will be hearing this name all day today and for a looooong time coming. Memorize it now!

• He had 131 yards in 9 receptions
• Oh, and did I mention that catch #9 was the game winning touchdown?

• With :35 remaining in the game, the Steelers were down 20-23. On second down, Santonion reached up out of the very back corner of the end zone–inches from being out of  bounds– and pulled down the pass from Ben Roethlisberger. Steelers 27-23.
• He became the Super Bowl MVP

3. The longest play in Super Bowl history

• In the final seconds of the first half, Steelers up 10-7, the Cardinals were 1st and goal and looked like they were going to finally take the lead–or at least tie– the game.
• Enter Steelers James Harrison.
• He picked off the pass from Cardinals QB Kurt Warner in the end zone and took off running.
• 100 yards later, he was finally tackled as he came down just inside his own endzone bringing the score to 17-7 going into halftime.
• The 100 yard TD is the longest play in Super Bowl history.
• The previous longest play was Desmond Howard’s 99-yard kickoff return for Green Bay in 1997.

4. The Cardinals late-game comeback

The Cards were shut down almost the whole game. They were not playing to win. And then all of a sudden in the fourth quarter, someone lit a fire under their hot tushies. It was kinda like watching a race where the runner or horse was conserving its energy the whole time and then bursts out at the end!

• In eight minutes they went on a 16-0 run.
• They scored two touchdowns and were awarded 2-points for a Safety (I’ll talk about this later when the coffee kicks in)
• With under 3:00 remaining in the game, they took their first lead of the game!

5. The Penalties

This was definitely a huge story of the game. And I find it really funny because right before the game I did a piece about Footbal Rules and Penalties. I barely got it up before the game started—but I wanted a reference guide because I am always lost when they start talking fouls and penalties.

I didn’t have time to cover them all (seriously, who would? There are like a thousand and each one has all sorts of crazy intricacies….). So I just picked like 10 or so of the most common. I looked at things like “Safety” and “chop block” but they are so rare that we decided not to focus on those for this game. Ha! Guess what? In Super Bowl XLIII there was a safety and a chop block!

There was also: unneccessary roughness, face mask,  roughing the passer, and a question of intentional grounding.

• There were a total of 18 penalited that resulted in over 162 yards.
• Arizona was called for 11 penalties: 106 yards.
• In one drive, they were called for three fouls! Gave the Steelers 35 yards and 3 automatic first downs!

Don’t worry, I’m doing a whole piece about this later. You know how I feel about silly NFL rules!

6. Kurt Warner wins NFL Man of the Year

He had already won my football man of the year! I heart him! Right before the game Kurt was awarded the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year trophy. The award recognizes excellence in football but more importantly, excellence off the field. It honors those players who go above and beyond to help give back to others. No one exemplifies this more than Kurt Warner.

“I am humbled the Lord has given me such an amazing life to impact others,” Warner said in a statement released by the NFL. “Of all the awards given to NFL athletes, the Walter Payton Man of the Year is the one that stands out above the rest to me because of what it represents.” ~Kurt Warner

7. Super Bowl XLII (aka last years Super Bowl)

Why am I mentioning this? The last :35 of that game were shockingly similar to this one. It seemed written in stone before the game that the New England Patriots would be the Champs and become the first team in NFL history to have a perfect season.

But….with :35 on the clock NY Giants Plaxico Burress caught the perfect pass from Eli Manning in the end zone (sound familiar?) and brought the score to 14-7, Giants.
8. the Super Bowl commercials!
I did (or am in the process of doing….) a whole post about the commercials. But what do you need to know right now: They sucked. They just really were not good AT ALL. Not like the commercials from back in the day. I will give props to e-trade and Cheetos. I liked those! More about the commercials

9. The NFL Pro Bowl (aka all-star game) & The NBA All-star game: but I’ll get into those at another time. Just letting you know they are out there!

Pro-Bowl is Sunday, February 8. All-Star Game/Weekend is Valentine’s Day Weekend.

About the author: Jennifer Taglione is the owner of this fabulous website Stiletto Sports. Despite writing well over 500 posts, she still maintains that she is not a sports writer! She is however a huge fan of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Mark Sanchez, the Celtics, and totally kicks butt on March Madness brackets! Connect with her by following her on Twitter @StilettoSportsJ and subscribing to her weekly newsletter. For more info check out the About the Editor page!

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