Great championship teams are defined by how they respond when forced to face sudden adversity on football's biggest stage. For the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII, Larry Fitzgerald’s late 64-yard touchdown pass to give the Arizona Cardinals a late fourth-quarter lead could have been a backbreaking blow. Instead, it set the stage for an unwritten, calm confidence that propelled wide receiver Santonio Holmes into Super Bowl immortality.
Appearing on the “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward” podcast with Steelers defensive veteran Cameron Heyward, former Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin recalled the immediate aftermath of Arizona's go-ahead score. Rather than allowing panic to set in, Tomlin immediately shifted focus to executing a championship-winning
two-minute drill.
While the Cardinals were kicking the extra point, Tomlin witnessed an unforgettable moment on the sideline. Holmes, then on the young side of his career, was pacing back and forth, entirely locked into his own world.
"Santonio Holmes is pacing back and forth right in front of me, and he's talking to himself and he's saying, 'Time to be great. Time to be great. Time to be great,'" Tomlin remembered. "I'll just never forget that moment. It's just surreal. I get chills thinking about it because it's just one of those moments that you'll never forget."
Holmes went on to score on one of the most clutch drives in NFL history, capping it off with his iconic toe-tapping touchdown catch in the corner of the end zone. As Tomlin noted, that sideline moment reflected the heart of a championship collective, men who smile in the face of adversity and eagerly step up when their team needs them most.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: What Santonio Holmes was saying right before his Super Bowl winning TD
