Former Hoosier Randle El throws TD to MVP Ward

DETROIT -- Mick Jagger moved up and down the field at halftime more easily than the Pittsburgh offense did for most of the game. In the end, though, Jerome Bettis, the Steelers and their thousands of rowdy fans wound up the big winners on Super Bowl Sunday.\nSave for a few big plays that changed the game, style points were hard to come by on America's annual football holiday. But to Pittsburgh, the 21-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks was beautiful -- a gritty grind of a game that included just enough flair to transform a blue-collar team playing in a blue-collar city into champions.\nIn a stadium brimming with thousands of Pittsburgh fans waving Terrible Towels, the Steelers finally captured their fifth title, that "One for the Thumb" that the Steelers have been waiting for since 1980.\nTitle No. 5 for Pittsburgh was the first for jut-jawed coach Bill Cowher, a 14-year veteran, and for Bettis, The Bus, who said he would end his 13-year career with a win in his hometown, only a few miles from where he grew up.\n"I played this game to win a championship," he said. "I'm a champion and I think the last stop is here, in Detroit."\nWhen it was over, Cowher found himself drenched, with water from the traditional dousing given to him by his players -- and with tears, as he hugged his wife and daughters. It was a scene much different than one 10 years ago, when the Steelers lost in the Super Bowl and Cowher had to do most of the consoling.\nTwo plays made a difference in this one: Willie Parker's record-setting 75-yard run for a touchdown right after halftime and receiver and former IU Hoosier Antwaan Randle El's 43-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward on a trick play that put the Steelers up by 11 early in the fourth quarter.\nThe NFL took a chance bringing its showcase game up North to one of America's great, old cities, but one under duress. Hurt by sinking population, growing unemployment and urban blight that doesn't go away easily, this proud metropolis was a happy host, eager to impress and hoping the NFL's magic and money won't go away as soon as the teams and fans leave.\nBettis wasn't ashamed.\n"The best part is being able to showcase the hometown," he said earlier in the week, of a city that was staggered last month when Ford announced up to 30,000 job cuts. "I love this city and it puts our city on the grandest stage in the world. It's something that's much needed."\nNobody had more reason to celebrate than the Steelers, who got this win despite a less-than-perfect game from their quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger (9-for-21 for 123 yards and two interceptions) and an offense that desperately needed the big plays it got to pull this out. Nearly half of Pittsburgh's 339 yards came on three plays -- Parker's run, Randle El's pass and a 37-yard pass that Roethlisberger threw across his body to Ward to set up Pittsburgh's first touchdown.\nAn aesthetic masterpiece, it was not, although a workingman's city like Pittsburgh and a blue-collar team like the Steelers will certainly take it.\n"I hope they appreciate me, because we just brought a championship home," Bettis said. "One for the Thumb"