Almost erased the years of ineptitude. ALMOST???

Dude, if you can't appreciate a team that went from - as you would say - "inept" to the Super Bowl, you should stop being a sports writer. I mean seriously, WTF?

I've been a Cards fan for EVER and I'm bummed that they didn't win... but to even think that this wasn't a HUGE triumph for the team and the organization is crazy. It was a great season, and an even greater playoff ride. I'm already looking forward to draft day and next season.

Why the hate, dude? The Cardinals showed great heart and talent. I thought the penalties came from the effort of a team losing on the talent score, but winning on the determination score. Such a negative article makes me wonder if sportswriters are as affected by gambling as MLB superstars were affected by PED's

The Cardinals achieved a miracle just by getting to play in the Super Bowl. Win or lose Warner and his crew did a fantastic job competing against the NFL's best defense. With fewer mistakes and better officiating, they might even have won the big prize.

It was a most fantastic Super Bowl no matter how you look at it!

To Mike Celizic, I cannot believe you would even write a headline as you did. Shame on you!!!!! Did you even watch the game sir???? Not only did the Cardinals play a great game they made Pittsburg EARN their title and with the help of the crappy officials helping them win. I cannot believe that the news media approve of the way the penalties went and especially the way Harrison punched the Cardinal player, he should have been thrown out IMMEDIATELY!!! The Cardinals couldn't have played any better, but the officials were obivously for the Steelers. Also, I would be ashamed of the YOUNGEST Coach who won, not to even mentioned after the fact he won, that the Cardinals played a good game, NOTHING was said, bad bad sportsmanship. I would be ashamed if I were a Pittsburgh fan. Also to Carolyn, what game were you watching and what was you smoking???????????

I guess the author of this very flawed analysis of one of the better Super Bowls in history thought he needed an “edgy” feel to his article to get it noticed. To diminish what the Cards accomplished this year and in this Super Bowl is the height of cynicism. Kurt Warner should have been this year’s MVP. Except for one bad decision at the end of the first half, he played like it through out the game. He was under intense defensive pressure from start to finish. Most of the holding penalties on Phoenix were in a desperate effort to keep Warner from being demolished when he was passing; the personal fouls on both sides were some of the dumbest, least sportsman like I have seen this year. Warner’s fumble at the end of the game came when the Cards were almost completely out of time and had no real shot of pulling off a miracle to win. In fact, it looked like it probably should have been called an incomplete pass, not a fumble. It is unreal that it wasn’t reviewed in the booth. All this being said, you have to give the Steelers their due; they pulled it out at the end. However, one small twist of fate here or there, and it just as easily could have been the Cardinals.

Not the same stuff as Michael Phelps lol.

Celizic is 100% right. The Cardinals were absolutely capable of winning that game and they gave it away. They did not just miss opportunities, they hunted them down and shot them dead. They simply played so unevenly that they failed to capitalize on the advantages that brilliant performance and outstanding effort gave them time and again. They beat themselves.

What a negative point of view!

This article sounds more like immature whinings from a devoted, yet dissapointed fan than the semi-objective journalistic viewpoint that I was expecting. I will try to learn from this to skip Mr. Celizic's efforts in the future.

This is sore loser journalism sure to console some sore losers. The Steelers made plenty of mistakes as well. The Steelers were the better team and it has more to do with how Ben and the Steelers responded and performed than the "mistakes" the Cards made.

Crap. They all should be talking about the Card's performance. They made the Steeler's D look ordinary, at best.

Pittsburg did not, and if you didn't hear me, DID NOT deserve that game. They got it, questionably, but they did not deserve it.

I'm not sure about 2 touchdowns. Look at NBC's slide show; the picture clearly shows Holme's foot off the ground....“I knew it was a touchdown 100 percent,” Holmes said, even though it had to withstand a video review. “My feet never left the ground. All I did was stand up on my toes and extended my hands.” But it's relevant that they got the call! They got them all day.

The int return was called a touchdown and there wasn't enough evidence to overturn it, but it is anything but certain. Actually didn't look like it to me, but it's relevant that they got the call!

And the holding? As if Pittsburgh didn't. Saw stuff just as bad all day. There was even holding on the touchdown/int return, if he even got in. And the roughing? Gimme a break. In fact, it appeared the guy was dragged by the chest and pulled off balance on the roughing the holder call. Crap. Punch a guy when he's down and not get tossed? Crap. But it's relevant that they got the call!

Warner got nailed worse than Ben several times when he wasn't even scrambling. What was with that? But it's relevant that they got the call! How many times can I say that?

Throw in 2 overturned calls against the Cards and you can't say the calls went a certain way? The Cards didn't get one call go their way.

It's football and the ref's can't be perfect, but that was sad. The NFL should be embarassed.

That was the Super Bowl and you have sad reffing? If I was in charge, upon review, I'd call the game null and replay it! It was that bad. It's sad that one even feels that way. And it's clear a whole of others do too. That's bad. Bad, bad, bad.

The Steeler's got away with one and I don't know how anyone can feel any different. Even fans, even the Steeler's themselves! They were clearly outplayed; even the last drive was aided by mistakes/blown calls. No way one can say it was a clean drive.

Don't get me wrong. The Steeler's played well enough to stay in it and win, and hat's off for that. But they did get away with one and it was still BAD!

I'm gonna take two hats off for the Cards.

The Refs. Hosed the Cards, a lot off Bad calls, but you still have to win the game ! The Steelers are a great team!Here we go again , Cards Next Year?

I like this article. Most of what you read this year (or in any year) after the SB is a bunch of dumbed-down, oversimplified sentimental crap that tries to play up certain story lines and fails to realize analyze what went right and wrong. I don't think this kind of sober analysis is negative at all. I think its interesting (because its not stupid).

Come on, Mike.  This is a friggin' game, and not worthy of your totally disrespectful simile "But that's like saying except for that annoying John Wilkes Booth, Mary Todd Lincoln really enjoyed watching "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater."

Get a clue about how important your career really is.