TAMPA, Fla. -- Greatest catch ever. I'm saying it. And you can't dispute it.
You can't dispute that Pittsburgh receiver Santonio Holmes, given the stakes and the degree of difficulty, just gave us the greatest catch in the history of professional football -- a 6-yard, leaping, tightrope grab in the back corner of the end zone with 35 seconds left to give the Steelers a 27-23 victory Sunday night against Arizona in Super Bowl XLIII.
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There's no way Santonio Holmes should be able to get open on this play -- and yet there he is. (Getty Images) |
That might seem like an overreaction. Greatest catch ... ever? This is what sports writers do -- that's what you're thinking. We overreact. We assume that whatever we're seeing now is bigger or better or more important than what we saw then. We forget the past. We dishonor it.
I hear that. I do. Which is why I'm going to slowly, methodically, prove my point. By the time you're finished with this story, you will agree that we have just witnessed the best, most significant catch in NFL history. Assuming you don't agree with me already. Which you should.
Hell, you saw it. You saw Holmes run into the end zone, find a way to get behind three Arizona defenders who were trying to stop the Steelers' one-man team -- Holmes produced 73 yards on Pittsburgh's final drive -- and make the most hellacious catch of our lifetime. Ben Roethlisberger's throw was fine, nothing wrong with it, given that it was in a place where only one player, Holmes, could make the catch.
The ball was high, and heading out of bounds. Holmes wasn't merely going to have to make a leaping catch -- that's routine enough; Holmes himself said later that he didn't leap, but he did a little bit -- but he had to make a leaping catch as his momentum was taking him out the side door near the back of the end zone. Leap, focus on the ball long enough to make the catch, then forget about the hands and worry about the feet. Get them down, both of them, because this isn't Ohio State, son. Two feet down in the NFL, or it's no catch.
Do all that ... oh, and did we mention this is the Super Bowl? And that there is less than a minute left? That the other team leads 23-20?
Unfair. Too much to ask of Holmes. Too much pressure, too much difficulty, too much everything. Maybe that's why, after he leaped for the ball and cradled it and dropped the first couple of toes of both feet onto the turf, Holmes stayed on the ground and rolled onto his back and closed his eyes and just rejoiced. Is this heaven? No, it's Tampa.
"I've got a lot of love for him right now," said Steelers linebacker James Harrison, who made a spectacular play of his own at the end of the first half when he rumbled 100 yards for a touchdown. "Oh my God. I don't believe it."
Believe it. The best catch of all time? Believe that. Before we go any further, give me at least this much: Give me that Holmes' catch was one of the best in football history. Give me that much, put it somewhere near the top, and I'll handle the rest. Trust me.
Here I go.
If you're putting it near the top of the list, good. I'm guessing there are only four catches that can compare to this one -- two of them by Steelers: The Immaculate Reception by Franco Harris in the 1972 AFC playoffs, and the Swann Dive by Lynn Swann in Super Bowl X in 1976. The other two candidates for greatest catch are The Catch by Dwight Clark in the 1981 NFC title game, and that bizarre helmet grab by the Giants' David Tyree in the Super Bowl last year.
Holmes' catch tops them all. Here's why:
The catches by Harris and Clark didn't come in the Super Bowl, which takes them out of the equation automatically. What are the greatest home runs in baseball history? Blasts by Bill Mazeroski in 1960, Carlton Fisk in 1975 and Kirk Gibson in 1988, all game-winning shots in the World Series. Biggest basket in basketball history? Not sure, but Michael Jordan shot it -- either his 17-footer that beat Georgetown for the 1982 NCAA title, or his 19-footer that beat Utah to win the 1998 NBA title.
The biggest plays must come in the biggest games. Everything else is nice, but ... get serious. To be the biggest play in any sport, it must come in the biggest game. Neither Harris nor Clark made their catch in the biggest game of the season. So they're out.
Swann and Tyree made their catches in the Super Bowl, so they're still in the running. I guess. But neither guy made his catch in the end zone. Neither guy scored on the play. Swann made the prettiest catch we've ever seen, and Tyree made one of the most difficult catches we've ever seen, but they came in the middle of the field. Tyree's grab led to the winning touchdown, true, but it didn't score it. So give Swann credit for being a ballerina in cleats, and applaud Tyree for making one of the most ridiculous catches you've ever seen.
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But don't compare their non-scoring catches to what Holmes did -- not just in the end zone in the Super Bowl, but in the final minute with his team trailing 23-20.
Holmes says the play was created specifically for this game, something "we drew up that we were hoping to get open in the back of the corner." Turns out, getting open in the back of the corner was the easy part -- not that it should have been. Not for Holmes. With leading receiver Hines Ward slowed by a knee injury, Holmes became the Steelers' top target, producing nine catches for 131 yards, not including two catches for 35 yards that were nullified by penalties. Even before his winning catch, he had made grabs of 15, 12 and 40 yards on the Steelers' final drive.
"Before that drive," Holmes said, "I told (Roethlisberger), 'Ben, I want the ball in my hands no matter what. No matter where it is.' "
Nobody should be open in the back of the end zone in the final minute of the Super Bowl. But on this day, Holmes was absolutely the last person who should have been available back there. Yet he was. And here came the ball. High. And wide. Heading out of bounds ...
"Santonio Holmes," said Ward, "really made a name for himself today."
Only history can judge that catch. But you already know what I think of it.
jdakanwv 
