James Harrison nearly ran 100 yards to be on the wrong end of one of the greatest moments in Super Bowl history. All Larry Fitzgerald had to do was show better aim. Recapping his Super Bowl pick-six for the thousandth time, Harrison detailed how close Fitzgerald came to being the name that went down in Lombardi lore. And how surprising it was to get the ball in the first place.
“I’m holding the ball like a loaf of bread,” Harrison said during a Wednesday appearance on the Rich Eisen Show. “Fitzgerald comes in from the side. I don’t see him. Nothing. He could have been a hero. All he had to do was hit the ball. He missed, he hit my chest, and it gave me time to cover the ball. If he had went straight down and hit the ball, it was gone.”
Here’s a look at the end as Fitzgerald tries and fails to knock it away.
Instead, Harrison—ball in hand—tumbled into the end zone with Fitzgerald and WR Steve Breaston, crossing the goal line for the touchdown. It’s one of the most iconic plays of Super Bowl history and crucial to the Steelers’ close victory. It was a potential 14-point swing, and Pittsburgh needed all those points in what became a 4-point win.
As unbelievable as the end of the play was, so was the beginning. Harrison never thought QB Kurt Warner would throw him the ball.
“I’m like, ‘alright, he sees me,” Harrison says as he dropped into coverage. “He’s not about to throw the ball. And I see his arm start going up, and I’m like, oh, snap. He’s about to throw the ball. And when he throws it, I’m like, oh shit, he threw the ball. So when I catch it, that’s why I’m kind of surprised as I cradle like this. I just really didn’t believe he was gonna throw it.”
Harrison, as he’s told many times before, was supposed to blitz on the play. But he made the split decision to drop into coverage instead, believing Warner would get the ball out fast. He did and never saw Harrison, throwing it right into his lap. Harrison and the 10-blocker convoy that quickly formed did the rest.
After scoring, Harrison lay in the end zone as he told Mike Tomlin, “I’m tired, boss.” Instead of celebrating during the Super Bowl’s extra-length halftime, Harrison spent the break getting an IV and catching his breath. Pittsburgh’s defense closed out the half, but the offense closed out the game, QB Ben Roethlisberger finding a toe-tapping Santonio Holmes in the back corner of the end zone.
Like Harrison, Fitzgerald is still asked about that play. Recently, he joked tackling Harrison was like tackling a “refrigerator.” And based on how Harrison still looks today, that hasn’t changed.
It’s a blind throw. A missed punch out. The NFL is a game of inches—the difference between Super Bowl glory and wondering what could’ve been.
