I thought I would go into cardiac arrest. It was the 4th quarter of SuperBowl XLIII and Steelers were down 20-23 with 2:24 left in the fourth quarter. The house was divided with the Hulls and DJ on one side and Moshers, Clarks and Libby on the other. Billy had just finished his psychotic leg dance in the kitchen due to Fitzgerald running the ball all the way down and into the endzone for the Cards. Nightmare. I was trying not to lose faith saying "come on, we have got to do it" over and over again as I paced the floor. Ashley just simply could not watch. The Steelers head to the line of scrimmage and hike the ball. Roethlisberger dances around and finally finds a hole to Holmes. 1st down.....eruption. Line of scrimmage again. 3rd and 6, Roethlisberger to Holmes. 1st down again...... eruption followed by silent prayers. All we need is field goal range. 2nd and 6, Roethlisberger to Holmes.......reception and running, then more running and more running all the way to the 6. Complete pandemonium. At least we were going to tie. We were not out of this- not yet. 43 seconds left in the game. Roethlisberger goes back, dances then drills it to the top right corner.....to Holmes of course. TOUCHDOWN!!!!! THE STEELERS HAVE WON THE SUPERBOWL! I was near hyperventilation, jumping up and down. Tim and Hudson were running all over the house giving people five and poor Tate was suffering from Shaken Baby Syndrome due to my jumping. We were all so excited.
After the celebration at Jones' house, we headed for home. It was funny because Tim and I were talking as we were leaving what kind of crazies we would find on our way home......and did we ever. There were tons of people just flooding the streets everywhere. We had seen a picture on the news of Oakland where Tim goes to school and it was just a mass of solid people all over the streets. They had shut everything down. Thousands and thousands of people. People were coming out everywhere. At every intersection on our way home, there were people out waving their "Terrible Towels" and screaming at the top of their lungs. They were running in and around cars as we would stop at the lights and the tunnels were an orchestra of honking, deafening to the ears. My favorite display of celebration though was this man who was in the center of the road as we approached an intersection. He was freaking out and pointed up and to the left, apparently trying to get everyone to look over there. As I peared out my window in the direction he was pointing, I saw a HUGE billboard where some nut case had climbed up and was dancing in front of it. It was hilarious.
Needless to say, we had a fabulous Super Bowl Sunday. Honestly, it was the first time that I really got into the game- I had flashbacks of the days at BYU where I would cheer on the Cougs from the sidelines as they played the U and Richard's State Championship wrestling meet. Ok, I probably was not as intense as the wrestling days, but the excitement was definitely there. The whole city is still on a high, although I am pretty sure the enormous amounts of alcohol consumed has something to do with that. But, none the less, we love our team and are pumped we were here to experience it. All I can say is "GO STEELERS"!!
PS. Tate has a girlfriend, already. We were taking pictures of all the babies born in the last few months (Tate, Madi and Mack) and Tate and Madi reached up and grabbed hands. They sat there holding hands pretty much the entire time. It was so cute.
