Football is full of all different kinds of controversy, and there are certainly several plays in Steelers’ history that embody that. Jesse James’ non-catch is one of the most recent, and Franco Harris’ Immaculate Reception is the most famous, but Santonio Holmes’ toe-tapping grab in Super Bowl 43 might be the most improbable. Whether it’s the tight window that Ben Roethlisberger threw the ball in or the impossible stretch Holmes makes to secure the ball, the play almost looks like poetry in motion. However, that hasn’t stopped people from crying foul by saying Holmes didn’t get both feet down, although the Cardinals’ starting quarterback from that game doesn’t seem to be one of them.
Kurt Warner has one of the NFL’s greatest stories, going from bagging groceries to winning a Super Bowl. The perfect fairy tale ending would have seen Warner capture a second Super Bowl with the Cardinals, but the Steelers had their own story they wanted to finish. On a recent episode of The Fantasy Footballers Podcast, Warner was asked whether or not he believed Holmes’ game-winning play really was a catch.
”You know, those are things I’m never gonna agree on. Whether he got that other toe down or not, the throw, the catch, the effort, it was just incredible. That’s just one of those plays that you gotta tip your hat and go, come on. Ben should’ve never thrown it, we had three guys in the area. Santonio should’ve never been close to catching it, yet, you know, made the perfect throw, made the catch. Whether that toe scraped the turf or not, I don’t really know, but it was one heck of an effort. We’re sitting here and we can’t definitively say whether he touched it or not, which to me makes it close enough, in a moment like that, where you gotta tip your hat and give it to him.”
Warner doesn’t come right out and say he thinks the play was definitely a catch, but as guy who was playing on the other team, that’s probably as close as it could get. Warner is aware that, in a situation like the Super Bowl, and with the play ruled a catch initially, overturning it would be impossible. That’s usually how the NFL has policed catches like that where an aspect of the play is unclear. Whatever was called on the field usually stands if there isn’t definitive proof saying otherwise.
If he wanted to be bitter, no one could blame Warner, but it’s good to see him have fun with the play and acknowledge just how absurd it was. It was one in a million, and unfortunately for Warner, that day was the one. Nothing can change the past, and history will remember Holmes’ play as the game-winning touchdown, as well as one of the greatest endings to a game of all time. It’s a shame it had to be against Warner and University of Pittsburgh football legend Larry Fitzgerald, but it was simply the Steelers’ day. Roethlisberger made an incredible throw, Holmes made an unbelievable catch, and the rest is history.
