Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champions Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 2008 season. The Steelers defeated the Cardinals by the score of 27–23. The game was played on February 1, 2009, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
With this victory, the Steelers became the first team to win six Super Bowl championships. The win was also the Steelers' second Super Bowl victory in four years, after winning Super Bowl XL at the end of the 2005 season. The Cardinals entered the game seeking their first NFL title since 1947, the longest championship drought in the league. The club became an unexpected winner during the regular season, compiling a 9–7 record, and earning a spot in the playoffs with the aid of head coach Ken Whisenhunt, who was the Steelers' offensive coordinator in Super Bowl XL, and the re-emergence of quarterback Kurt Warner, who was the Super Bowl MVP in Super Bowl XXXIV with his former team, the St. Louis Rams.
The Steelers jumped to a 17–7 halftime lead, aided by linebacker James Harrison's Super Bowl–record 100-yard interception return for a touchdown. Trailing 20–7 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Cardinals scored 16 consecutive points, including a safety that led to wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald's 64-yard touchdown reception, to take their first lead of the game with 2:37 remaining. But the Steelers marched 78 yards to score on wide receiver Santonio Holmes's 6-yard game-winning touchdown catch with 35 seconds left. Holmes, who caught nine passes for 131 yards and a touchdown, including four receptions for 73 yards on that final game-winning drive, was named Super Bowl MVP. He became the sixth wide receiver to win the award, half of whom at the time were Steelers players (Lynn Swann and Hines Ward).
The NBC television network broadcast attracted an average U.S. audience of 98.7 million viewers, making it the most watched Super Bowl in history at that time and the most watched Super Bowl of the 2000s. Many media outlets consider this one of the best Super Bowls from the 2000s, as well as one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time, due to the performance of both teams as well as its thrilling finale. This game was ranked No. 4 on NFL Top 10 on NFL Network for Top 10 Greatest Games of All Time and ranked No. 1 for Top 10 Super Bowls. , this is the Steelers' most recent Super Bowl championship, and the last title by a Pennsylvania-based NFL team until their cross-state rival Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl LII in 2018. It was also the last time a Phoenix-based team reached the championship round of the four major North American sports leagues until the Phoenix Suns made the NBA Finals in 2021.
This was the last game to feature famed commentator John Madden, who retired two months after the game.
Background
Host selection process
NFL owners voted to award Super Bowl XLIII to Tampa during their May 25, 2005 meeting held in Washington, D.C. Four cities were part of the bid process: Tampa (Raymond James Stadium), Atlanta (Georgia Dome), Houston (Reliant Stadium), and Miami (Dolphins Stadium). All four cities had previously hosted multiple Super Bowls. New York/New Jersey (Giants Stadium) was also an early candidate to host, a plan that had the support of NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. NY/NJ had been a candidate for XLII, but decided to withdraw from that game and try for XLIII. Approximately $250–300 million was needed for upgrades and renovations to aging Giants Stadium. Ultimately the plans failed to materialize, and NY/NJ dropped out. At the same time, a separate group led by the Jets embarked on an alternate NY/NJ bid for West Side Stadium for XLIV.
The Atlanta host committee, led by Falcons owner Arthur Blank, made an aggressive bid for XLIII. Of the four finalists, Atlanta had the longest gap since last hosting (XXXIV). They promised $150 million in renovations to the Georgia Dome, and boasted their proximity to major attractions, practice facilities, as well as the ease of travel with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Atlanta, however, was not without its detractors. The major ice storm that occurred during the days leading up to XXXIV, as well as Atlanta's reputation for traffic congestion were factors.
Miami was thought to be a long shot, as it was already scheduled to host XLI. Tampa promised warm weather, golfing opportunities, and a private league party at Busch Gardens. Meanwhile, Houston had the newest stadium of the four. The selection for XLIII was considered by some as particularly consequential, because with new stadiums planned in Dallas, Indianapolis, and potentially Los Angeles – and with XLIV tentatively assigned to West Side Stadium in Manhattan – it might be several years until another Super Bowl host opportunity would be available.
The vote was scheduled for a maximum of four rounds. A city receiving of the votes would win outright. If no city received the necessary votes (24 of 32) during the first round, the last place vote-getter would be eliminated, and the process repeated. If the fourth round was reached, the vote would change to a simple majority (17 of 32). Houston was eliminated on the first ballot, and Miami was eliminated on the second. Neither Tampa nor Atlanta received enough votes in the third round, so the fourth round was decided by simple majority. Tampa won the vote, in what was described as a 'narrow' vote and an "upset".
It would be the second Super Bowl at Raymond James Stadium, and the fourth overall in Tampa. After losing out, the city of Atlanta would not land the Super Bowl again for another ten years (LIII). In February 2008, the Tampa Bay Super Bowl Host Committee unveiled the Super Bowl XLIII logo, featuring an abstract representation of a football stadium, with blue and green colors representing the regional waterways and landscapes of Tampa Bay. Eight yards of playing field are shown, alluding to the game's status as the championship of the 2008 NFL season. In a tradition starting with the XL logo, two stars—one red, representing the AFC, and one blue, representing the NFC—are flanked on either side of the XLIII logo. The tagline for Super Bowl XLIII as well as the 2008 NFL season is "Believe In Now".
Teams The seeds of Super Bowl XLIII can be traced back to the end of the 2006 season. After winning Super Bowl XL in 2005, the Pittsburgh Steelers fell to an 8–8 record the following year. At the end of 2006, Bill Cowher ended his 15-year tenure as their head coach, leaving with a 149–90–1 regular season record and a 12–9 record in the playoffs. Offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and assistant head coach Russ Grimm were considered most likely to succeed Cowher in Pittsburgh.
Without waiting to see if he would be hired by the Steelers, Whisenhunt accepted the head coaching job with the Arizona Cardinals, a team that at the time held the second-longest championship drought in U.S. sports (1947, with only the Chicago Cubs having a longer drought, winning their last championship in 1908) and had never advanced to the Super Bowl in their franchise history. In the 60 years since their last national championship, the team had won just one playoff game (20–7 over the Dallas Cowboys in the 1998 NFC Wild Card Game). The Steelers then passed over Grimm and instead hired Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin. Once Tomlin was hired by the Steelers, Grimm joined Whisenhunt with the Cardinals in the same position as assistant head coach as he had with the Steelers, and the two of them began to remodel the perennial losing club into a winner like the Steelers.
Of historical note the game matched up two franchises previously merged into a single team, "Card-Pitt", for the 1944 season in response to the depleted rosters during World War II. The Steelers were going for their sixth Super Bowl win, which would place it in sole possession of the record for most Super Bowl wins, while the Cardinals were seeking their first league title since 1947 and only the second undisputed league championship in their history. (In 1925, the Pottsville Maroons (who, like Pittsburgh, were based in Pennsylvania) were fined and suspended for playing a game against the Notre Dame football team in another NFL franchise's territory, which resulted in the NFL naming the Cardinals, then based in Chicago, NFL champions in their place, a decision Pottsville disputed). It was the third Super Bowl in history to feature two pre-expansion-era (pre-1960) teams, joining Super Bowl XIV (Steelers vs. Los Angeles Rams, the latter of which coincidentally also went 9–7 in the regular season) and Super Bowl XLI (Indianapolis Colts vs. Chicago Bears). This game also featured the oldest franchise in the NFC playing the oldest franchise in the AFC. The Cardinals were founded in 1898 as an independent amateur team in Chicago. The Steelers, founded in 1933 as the Pittsburgh Pirates, are one of only three AFC teams that pre-date the 1960 NFL season. The Cardinals and Steelers played each other twice per season from 1950 through 1969, first in the American Conference (1950–52), then in the Eastern Conference (1953–66), and finally in the Century Division of the Eastern Conference (1967–69). Both clubs have been owned by the same family since , with Charles Bidwill (Arizona) buying the Cardinals and Art Rooney, Sr. (Pittsburgh) becoming the first owner of the Steelers; as of , the clubs are owned by descendants Michael Bidwill and Art Rooney II.
It also was the first time that two quarterbacks who previously started for a Super Bowl winning team (Kurt Warner and Ben Roethlisberger) opposed one another since Jim Plunkett's Los Angeles Raiders defeated Joe Theismann's Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII. Warner started for the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV and Super Bowl XXXVI, winning the first (aided by a heads-up defensive play by linebacker Mike Jones on the final play of the game) and losing the second one (the first of Tom Brady's seven in ten attempts), while Roethlisberger was the winning quarterback in Super Bowl XL.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Under Tomlin's first season as head coach, the Steelers improved to a 10–6 record in 2007. The Steelers finished the 2008 season with the second best record in the AFC at 12–4, making the playoffs for the sixth time in the last eight seasons, and went on to earn their seventh Super Bowl trip in franchise history, breaking a three-way tie with the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos for second most Super Bowl appearances and most Super Bowl appearances by an AFC team.
The Steelers excelled on defense and led the NFL in fewest points (13.9) and yards (237.2) allowed per game, while also ranking second in sacks with 51. Up front, their line was anchored by defensive end Aaron Smith, who recorded 60 tackles and six sacks. Behind him two of the Steelers starting linebackers ranked among the top-ten sack leaders in the NFL, LaMarr Woodley (11.5 sacks) and Pro Bowler/NFL Defensive Player of the Year James Harrison (16 sacks). Pro Bowl linebacker James Farrior was also a big contributor, recording 3.5 sacks and leading the team with 133 tackles. The Steelers secondary was led by Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu, who ranked second in the NFL with a career-high seven interceptions.