Andy Richardson

If your formative NFL-watching years were in the '80s and early '90s, you pretty much took for granted that Super Bowls would be lousy games. There were a couple of thrillers in that span, but most of them were ugly, miserable blowouts. That's why the last couple of years have been so enjoyable, and surprising. The biggest game of the year actually lives up to its billing, again. Some random thoughts.

1. The last play. According to the game announcers, and NFL director of officiating Mike Pereira the next day, replay booth officials confirmed that Kurt Warner fumbled on Arizona's last play. Um, what? Without actually stopping play for five minutes, as they did on Roethlisberger's rushing touchdown early on and the defensive score right before the half, the replay booth was able to look at the footage of that play and immediately make a determination that it was in fact a fumble? Talk about a desperate attempt to cover up a mistake on the final play of a thrilling Super Bowl. I'm not saying it wasn't a fumble. I am saying it was a close play that deserved a second, lengthy look to make certain the right call was made. Isn't that what replay is for? It would have been nice to see Warner get one more play to throw it up for Larry Fitzgerald (although odds are Warner would have been sacked again anyway). Still, it was a curious play NOT to take a careful look at, an unconvincing explanation by NFL officiating, and it's mildly surprising to me that there wasn't a little more post-game media discussion of it (considering it's primarily what fans were talking about afterward).

2. The game itself. Already this game has joined Rams-Titans as one that is recalled a lot more fondly than it should have been thanks to an outstanding fourth quarter. At halftime of Rams-Titans I wanted to turn that yawn-fest off. Into the fourth quarter of this one it looked like a sloppy, penalty-marred affair between a pair of teams far from the best in the league (or maybe they actually were the best two teams in the league, which is kind of a sad statement about today's NFL). Through three quarters that 100-yard touchdown by James Harrison was about the only interesting play in the game. Of course, the final seven minutes were outstanding -- just outstanding. Huge plays by Warner and Fitzgerald, a big-time drive by Ben Roethlisberger, big catches time and again by Santonio Holmes, and one of the best touchdown throws and catches you'll ever see (especially impressive since they almost did it on the previous play in the other end-zone corner). Rare do you see a Super Bowl game where all the best players, and both quarterbacks, enhance their reputation. Usually one team, one quarterback, has an ugly meltdown. Recent exceptions probably include Packers-Broncos and perhaps Giants-Patriots. And now, Steelers-Cardinals.

3. The commercials. Everyone has their favorite, and invariably one person's favorite (the Doritos commercial) leaves somebody else (me) shaking their head sadly. I'm going to vote for two, based solely on the fact that they were the only two that left me laughing so hard I cried. The early one for Pedigree encouraging people to get dogs, with a rhino destroying a woman's living room, an ostrich chasing a mailman, and a warthog riding in a car, was a classic. (link here). And the monster.com one, which needs no description but was simply brilliant (link here). There were some other good ones, but these were the two that stood out for me.

4. Fantasy ramifications. Evidently Kurt Warner will take some time to consider whether he'll retire or not. The nerve of him trying to hone in on Brett Favre's racket. Warner should actually call Favre, the last quarterback who tried retiring coming off an MVP-caliber season; my guess is Favre would tell him "Take it from me: DON'T." If Warner retires now, he'll regret it; hopefully he's smart enough not to. At running back, the Cardinals likely won't bring back Edgerrin James and will probably bring in somebody else to share the workload with Tim Hightower and maybe J.J. Arrington. Doesn't look as if Arizona will change from being a pass-first team. Will Anquan Boldin be back? That's probably up to him; Arizona certainly doesn't have to give him a big-money deal, and they can probably manage fine with Steve Breaston starting if they're forced to trade a disgruntled Boldin away. For Pittsburgh, they've got to be hoping Rashard Mendenhall puts it together in the offseason/preseason, and maybe they need some help along the line, too; this isn't a good running team right now. Santonio Holmes should be the team's clear No. 1 next year; too early to say if he'll be overdrafted or underdrafted, but Pittsburgh still has the look of a team that will spread it around a lot -- Holmes one week, Hines Ward the next, Heath Miller another.

And that's it; the season is over. Steelers fans can consider themselves the greatest franchise in NFL history (although I'm going to go with "Super Bowl era," since the league had a pretty rich history before they decided to call the title game "Super Bowl"), and Cardinals fans can wonder about what might have been. And us fantasy owners can debate how early is too early to draft Larry Fitzgerald next year. Based on the postseason, you could make a case that there won't be a surer thing in next year's draft.

Only six or seven more months to decide.

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