OTHER VIEWS

Len Dawson not long ago was reminiscing about a really bad pass he threw for Kansas City in the very first Super Bowl. It was intercepted and permanently swung the momentum of the game Green Bay’s way.

“To this day,” Dawson said, “I still wish I could have that pass back.”

Ben Roethlisberger had a moment Sunday when he understood exactly how Dawson must have felt, 39 Super Bowls later. A moment so bad, he must have been tempted to borrow a Terrible Towel from one of the tens of thousands of Pittsburgh Steeler fans in the Ford Field stands and go off somewhere private to cry into it.

Luckily for the Steelers, the young quarterback’s gaffe did not cost him -- or them -- a championship. They overcame a colossal blunder by Roethlisberger in the second half to defeat the Seattle Seahawks for the NFL title, 21-10.

So there will be no need for this 23-year-old quarterback, known to his teammates as “Big Ben,” to look back at Super Bowl XL with any regrets if he is still being asked about it at Super Bowl L or LX or even Super Bowl C.

Roethlisberger threw a pass Sunday that could have been a rock for the ages. It was picked off by -- or rather floated right into the palms of -- defensive back Kelly Herndon of the Seattle Seahawks, who ran 76 yards with it and abruptly changed the complexion of this championship game.

Big Ben was dumbstruck.

“That was one where my mind was telling me to throw it over the top and my arm didn’t throw it over the top,” he said later. “I read it right. I just didn’t throw it good.”

Ultimately, it didn’t matter.

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MIKE BIANCHI

ORLANDO SENTINEL

Fairy Tale Ending for Steelers

This is how this story should have ended.

Any other way would not have been right.

Any other conclusion and it would have been like “It’s a Wonderful Life” ending with George Bailey actually jumping off the bridge and drowning.

We wanted the Pittsburgh Steelers holding up that trophy.

We needed the Pittsburgh Steelers holding up that trophy.

If the Seattle Seahawks had won, it would have been the stuff of dull documentaries. The Steelers winning was the stuff of fantastic fairy tales.

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HARTFORD COURANT

Bettis, Cowher Forever Linked

He came home to Detroit to finally win the big one. Now here it was at 10 Sunday night, confetti falling inside Ford Field, and Jerome Bettis was stepping onto the podium at the 50-yard line to announce that, yes, this was the last stop for the Bus.

A Hall of Fame career was ending. A Hall of Fame party was just beginning.

Only moments before, Bill Cowher, forever Pittsburgh, became forever Pittsburgh’s champion. And here he was, doing what he had promised he would do. The Steeler coach, whose chin has come to symbolize a town’s resolve, picked up the Lombardi Trophy, symbolic of supremacy in the NFL, and placed it gently in owner Dan Rooney’s hands.

“It’s surreal now,” Cowher said, tears welling in his eyes. “It’s a rewarding feeling to give the trophy to Mr. Rooney. It really does complete a void that’s been there.”

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WASHINGTON POST

XL Was No Instant Classic

It wasn’t a classic, not to anybody other than the Pittsburgh Steelers. There were too many mistakes that offset the number of big plays, even record plays. And the poor zebras, who have struggled through the postseason, tried their best to ruin the whole day. But style points are for the Olympics, not the Super Bowl. And once we get past Monday morning, history will know only that the Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XL.

What was a largely unsatisfying evening when it comes to athletic theater will be remembered as the fifth Super Bowl victory for one of the NFL’s great franchises, the Steelers. The record won’t show that the first half of play looked more preseason than super, only that Ben Roethlisberger made some critical runs, Antwaan Randle El threw a beautiful option pass for a touchdown, and the Seahawks played too much like simpletons, particularly over the final few minutes, to be champions.

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NEWSDAY

One Win Turns Into More

This improbable run began with one simple plea from Bill Cowher.

The Pittsburgh Steelers had just been beaten by the Cincinnati Bengals to fall to 7-5, and their playoff hopes appeared almost gone. Cowher gathered his team together a short while after the loss, and told them this:

“Just win a game. Just one game. Don’t worry about the big picture. Just win a game, and then we’ll see what happens.”

Here’s what happens: The Steelers win that game, then another, and then another. In the end, they went on a run never before seen in NFL history, culminating Sunday night in Cowher’s first Super Bowl championship and finally giving him a chance to present iconic team owner Dan Rooney the Vince Lombardi Trophy he’d been after the last 14 years.