The Steelers' Hand Is Now Completely Adorned, As Are The Careers Of Bettis, Cowher

Super Bowl XL MVP Hines Ward celebrates 43-yard TD pass from Antwaan Randle El


As usual, Jerome Bettis' numbers were unspectacular. As usual, the Pittsburgh Steelers made several big plays on offense, including a couple of gadgets. As usual, the Steelers' defense came up with a sack or an interception at the best of times. And, as usual, there were some scary moments.

But what was unusual was the Steelers played a home game in these playoffs. Their jerseys were road white, as they had been in the three qualifiers, but in Super Bowl XL at Ford Field, there was no mistaking who was the home team. The crowd roared or was silent as the Steelers had success or failure on the field. Even the city of Detroit shamefully, but with pride nonetheless, declared itself Steelers people, through the mouth of its still-maturing mayor.

The Steelers' 21-10 victory, played out in Bettis Country, gave the franchise five Super Bowl wins. It gave Bettis, the retiring running back, his first. It gave Bill Cowher, Steelers Legendary Coach II, his first. The win brought one Hall of Fame career full circle (Bettis), and got the monkey off the back of another (Cowher).

As Bettis himself said afterward, if you had penned a script similar to what transpired during the Steelers' playoff run, it would probably be rejected by Hollywood as being too good to be true: Hometown kid makes it back to his stomping grounds for the Big One, and goes out a winner in his final game.

But not before some trials and tribulations, of course. Need I mention The Tackle -- Ben Roethlisberger's season-saving tackle in Indianapolis on a return of a fumble by Bettis of all people -- which has now entered NFL legendary lore, joining The Catch and The Drive? Need I mention Kelly Herndon's interception of Roethlisberger in XL, which was returned 76 yards and turned a possible 21-3 rout into a 14-10 nailbiter? Need I mention the possible making of The Drive II, when the Seahawks picked the Steelers apart from their own 2 and almost made it to the Steelers 2 -- poised to take a 17-14 lead -- before a penalty and a sack and an interception stopped them?

No, winning these Super Bowls haven't been easy lately. We've had some close ones, and some good ones, and it only took about 35 years to see some compelling games on a consistent basis.

But the Steelers have their moniker for a reason. They are indeed as steely as their name and as their coach's chin suggest. But they aren't just tough. Everyone in the NFL is tough, or else they wouldn't be in the league. They aren't just opportunistic. Teams capitalize on opponents' mistakes to win games every Sunday. They aren't just a team that likes to grind it out on the ground. Just about every team in the league would like to run for 180+ yards every game.

The Steelers are creative. They are aggressive. They are smart. They are physical. And the fact that very few teams are all of these things at once for any considerable length of time is why the Vince Lombardi Trophy returns to Pittsburgh for the first time in 30 years.

In fact, one play illustrated how the Steelers are creative/aggressive/smart/physical, all at once. It came on a 3rd-and-28, the ball on the Seattle 40, late in the first half. Roethlisberger, who had just been sacked as the Steelers went from being in the Red Zone to possibly being out of even field goal range, was flushed out of the pocket with the ferocity of a public toilet. He scrambled, looking for an open receiver (creative). He made sure he knew where the line of scrimmage was so as not to go over it (smart). He opted for a deep ball rather than a safety valve dump-off (aggressive). He threw it to Hines Ward, who came back to the ball and outworked his defender to catch it (physical). Ward caught it at the Seahawks 2 yard line. End of predicament. Beginning of control.

Tell me, what would a Lions quarterback have done in a similar situation? What would the play call have been under their popgun offense?

And would our Lions have tried the "it's a handoff -- no it's a reverse --no it's a pass!" gadget that Antwaan Randle El converted to Ward for a 43-yard touchdown? And would the Lions' offensive line been able to have opened the Mack truck-size hole that Willie Parker used for his 75-yard touchdown run? And would they have been penalized as infrequently as the Steelers were?

Yes, there is parity in the NFL. That's why there are so many teams that bob along between 7-9 and 9-7 in any given year. But there is most certainly a cream to this crop, and those teams -- the losing Seahawks included -- are the ones who commit the fewest mistakes, make the biggest plays, and have the moxie to stare down a 3rd-and-28 and declare that it isn't a lost cause, when most teams are prepping the field goal unit before the play is even called.

And, of course, there is Bettis. You look at the stat sheet at the end of the game and find Bettis' name, look to the right, and see this: 14 carries, 43 yards. No touchdowns. And those might be GOOD numbers, compared to some of his other lines (this is a man who once had this line: 4 carries, 2 yards, 3 touchdowns). So even though Bettis didn't score yesterday, he chewed up some clock, made a big 13-yard run to the Seahawks 10 (which was later nullified by Herndon's pick), and provided his usual leadership and poise in the huddle. That latter quality was captured by ABC's microphones in the fourth quarter, the game still in the balance.

"Huddle up! Huddle up! Look, we're not gonna change anything! Let's just do what we do, ever since training camp! We've been doing this since training camp! One play at a time!" (I paraphrase, but that was the gist.).

And he's not even the quarterback.

Bettis will go into the Hall of Fame with a Super Bowl championship on his resume because he and his teammates would not be refused any longer. It's as if they said "Enough is enough!" and put their recent playoff disappointments -- all those playoff and AFC Championship Game losses at home -- in the dumpster and packed their suitcases and footballs and cleats and set out on the road trip to end all road trips. They played nary a single playoff game at home, entering the postseason as the last seed. They were, as Al Michaels pointed out, 7-5 after 12 games and not even a playoff qualifier at that point.

So they simply went out and ran the proverbial table. The Colts were perfect through the first 13 games, when it didn't truly matter all that much. The Steelers were perfect for the last eight, when it mattered the absolute most.

Thirty years the Rooney family waited to add their thumb ring. That makes the Fords a whole hand behind them.