Down 10-7, the Arizona Cardinals faced first-and-goal at the 1 with 18 seconds left in the first half and lined up with wide receivers Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald flanked to the left on Sunday.
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison lined up outside left tackle Mike Gandy, faked as if he were rushing the passer before floating to the spot he anticipated Kurt Warner would throw. Warner never saw Harrison and threw the football right into his hands.
Then the player who nearly quit to become a bus driver after getting cut four times weaved his way 100 yards through Arizona traffic and into the Super Bowl record books. The NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year ran through Warner’s tackle attempt, made a nifty cut and raced down the Cardinals sideline untouched until Gandy unsuccessfully tried knocking him out of bounds at the 10. Fitzgerald attempted to strip the ball at the end zone with the help of Steve Breaston but Harrison prevailed, tumbling over the goal line to make it 17-7.
“Those last couple yards were probably tougher than anything I’ve done in my life,” Harrison said, laughing.
The previous longest Super Bowl play was Desmond Howard’s 99-yard kickoff return for Green Bay against New England in 1997.
“I would say it was the greatest play in Super Bowl history,” Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said. “We don’t win without (that) play.”