Dreams dashed in a second

With 36 seconds to go Sunday night, the jubilant hopes of Arizona Cardinals fans everywhere were alive and well.

Fans from across the nation – both real and bandwagon – were on the brink of the impossible, for those incredible Cardinals were just 36 seconds away from winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl.

A Super Bowl, it seemed, was ready to head home to Glendale, Ariz., on the back of a redemptive quarterback and a wide receiver with impossible talent.

Then a second ticked away.

In that flash, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes hauled in a fingertip catch with toes that just graced the back corner of the end zone in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., to dash all hopes of a Cardinal championship that just a month ago seemed less likely than pigs performing aerial maneuvers.

Gone were the emotions of Kurt Warner connecting with Larry Fitzgerald for a 64-yard bolt to the opposite goal post for the Cardinals’ first lead with 2:37 remaining. Gone were the emotions of seeing the impossible happen on the NFL’s biggest stage for the second straight year.

The glory was left for the fans, players and coaches of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who walked out of that stadium with the team’s second title in just four years.

The game itself wasn’t exactly pretty, with both teams committing some 18 penalties for 162 yards ­– the Cardinals especially shot themselves in the foot with their own 106 yards’ worth of yellow flags – but the biggest play happened just as Bruce Springsteen was getting ready to take the halftime show stage.

Warner, looking to give the Cardinals a lead at the break after trailing 10-0 in the first quarter, dropped back from the 1-yard line of the Steelers and threw the most critical interception of all interceptions ever thrown.

Instead of getting in the end zone for six points plus one, Pittsburgh’s James Harrison took the errant pass for the longest play of Super Bowl history and a touchdown – most likely a 14-point swing in a game won by just four.

It sure would have been easy at that point for the Cardinals to give in after two weeks’ worth of naysayers and a 10-point deficit. Instead, they dug in and gave said bandwagon Cardinals fans (I just canceled my Larry Fitzgerald jersey order) a reason to watch and believe.

That one yard – just like that one second – proved to be too much for the Cardinals, and when it was all said and done, Arizona head coach Ken Whisenhunt’s crew left the field disappointed.

They say football is a game of inches, and Sunday night proved that point more clearly than ever. Sure, it was an enjoyable game, but I can’t help but think that most people who tuned in over a few frosty libations and plenty of fried foods didn’t go home beaming from ear to ear.

Instead, they went home just as the Cardinals did Sunday night – disappointed that the improbable couldn’t happen just one more time.