Remarkably, he dropped it.
No excuses. The Pittsburgh Steelers' top receiver flat-out dropped it.
"The great ones don't miss balls in the Super Bowl," Ward said. "And I want to be considered one of the great ones."
Before this Super Bowl ended, Ward would get more chances to prove he deserves to be counted among the greats. And, he wouldn't bumble those chances away.
Ward completed an MVP performance Sunday by catching a 43-yard touchdown pass from receiver Antwaan Randle El, a trick play that became the decisive play in the Steelers' 21-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
Pittsburgh's Lynn Swann won the Super Bowl MVP in 1976 for making one big catch after another against Dallas, including a diving grab of a tipped ball that makes all of the Super Bowl highlight reels.
Ward's game wasn't nearly as memorable -- that end zone drop was just his most glaring mistake -- but it was good enough to win the MVP award in a ragged game that came down to two big plays.
"To be named MVP is a great honor, but I still left some plays out on the field," Ward said. "I could have had an even better day."
Same for Roethlisberger, who at age 23 became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl even though he finished with the worst passer rating by any winning quarterback -- 22.6. Play after play, he played down to his age.
The entire Pittsburgh offense had little to crow about, other than two plays that were enough to bring coach Bill Cowher his first championship.
The first was some old-fashioned rust-belt offense: Hand the ball off and clear a path. Pulling left guard Alan Faneca opened a huge hole for Willie Parker on the second play of the second half, setting up a 75-yard touchdown run that was the longest in Super Bowl history.
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