DALLAS — How do you like that? The Green Bay Packers are the champions of football again after surviving the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 at the spectacular Texas Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Yes, the Packers are taking the Vince Lombardi Trophy back home to Green Bay, the NFL’s smallest city. The thrilling Packers win was seen by 111 million viewers in the United States, making it the single most watched TV program in U.S. history.
Super Bowl XLV was played in the shadow of a potential NFL owners’ lockout of the league’s 1,700 players on March 3. The Packers win in many ways proved to the world that the current system is just fine.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the game’s MVP, joins Bart Starr and Brett Favre as Packer quarterbacks who’ve won Super Bowls. “Just keep going in order — Bart Starr, Brett Favre, and Aaron Rodgers,” said Donald Driver of the team’s three Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks.
Rodgers was the man he has been all year, particularly in the playoffs. He was sensational, throwing for 304 yards and three touchdowns, two to Greg Jennings. Rodgers becomes only the third quarterback ever to pass for over 300 yards and three TD’s without an interception in a Super Bowl, joining Hall-of-Famers Joe Montana and Steve Young.
The young, gifted Packers overcame the huge Super Bowl experience advantage of the Steelers. The Packers are just the second sixth-seed in history to win the Super Bowl. Green Bay was the last team to qualify for the playoffs and then went on the road to beat Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago.
Green Bay is the first NFL franchise to win 13 World Championships. “With Aaron Rodgers, we put this game on his shoulders,” said Green Bay Head Coach Mike McCarthy, who becomes the third Packers coach to win a Super Bowl, joining Lombardi and Mike Holmgren.
Green Bay jumped out of the gate and led 14-0 and 21-3 and 21-10 at halftime. They then survived several injuries to Driver and Charles Woodson and the furious Steeler challenge; the Steelers trailed 28-25 with six minutes left.
But the Packers were better: They dropped passes, but they did not make critical mistakes like the Steelers did. The Steelers committed three costly turnovers; the Packers had zero. It was the 14th Super Bowl in which the team that scored on an interception won the game.
The game was seen by 103,219 fans at Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ spectacular Texas Stadium, the second-largest crowd in Super Bowl history.
Horrible week in Dallas!
Take it from a guy who has been to the rodeo before (Super Bowl XLV was my 31st Super Bowl) — the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington experience was tough. The area was hit with extreme cold and snow late Monday. The temperature dropped from 70 degrees Sunday to 12, with rain and snow. I have never been anywhere where the weather was so bad — icy roads and so much snow and cold that the schools were closed for four days.
Dallas was not ready for the worst, period. For a city that has hosted the NBA All-Star game, the World Series, and now the Super Bowl all in the last 365 days, that’s a shame. The airport was closed three different times during the week — they have no idea in Dallas what salt is. They used beach sand on some roads; cars were all over the place.
Getting around was a nightmare on the roads with the Super Bowl events spread around. There was a cab strike also, and billionaire Jerry Jones charged $250 per car for parking around the stadium. On top of that, the NFL bungled the lives of 400 innocent fans by canceling their game tickets on game day after they had already paid for them.
The fans were told that the team regretted the situation and inconvenience, but the seats were unusable — it was a safety decision made by the NFL, Dallas Cowboys, and the City of Arlington. The victims will each receive a refund of triple the cost of the face value of their tickets, which was $900 each.
History denied
It was the third straight year that a Black coach (Mike Tomlin) had guided his team to the Super Bowl. The Packers win denied Tomlin the chance to become the youngest (38) coach to win and the first coach in history to win two Super Bowls in four years.
Larry Fitzgerald can be heard weekday mornings on KMOJ Radio 89.9 FM at 8:25 am, and on WDGY-AM 740 Monday-Friday at 12:17 pm and 4:17 pm; he also commentates on sports 7-8 pm on Almanac (TPT channel 2). Larry welcomes reader responses to info@larry-fitzgerald.com, or visit www.Larry-Fitzgerald.com.
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