Steelers beat Seahawks, clinch Super Bowl after 26 years

With the Super Bowl win Pittsburgh Steelers now shares record for maximum number of Super Bowl titles with Dallas and San Francisco.

6 February 2006
DETROIT, USA

Pittsburgh beat Seattle 21-10 in an action-packed Sunday final to clinch the Super Bowl, 26 years after they last won it.

This is the first time a sixth seed has clinched American football’s coveted honor. 

Pittsburgh set up a string of upsets en route to Super Bowl, toppling Indianapolis, Denver and Cincinnati.

With Sunday’s win Pittsburgh is now on par with Dallas and San Francisco’s record of five Super Bowl victories.

The Pittsburgh Steelers had earlier won Super Bowl in 1975, 1976, 1979 and 1980.

In 1996, they were defeated by Dallas. That was the first time that Coach Bill Cowher made his appearance as a coach in a Super Bowl.

Cowher, who has been with Pittsburgh for 14 years, has only four other peers who have won more games but failed to clinch Super Bowl.

His 14 years is also a record for the maximum number of years for a coach with the same team.

Pittsburgh’s Roethlisberger also won another honor when he became the youngest quarterback in a winning team, erasing the record held by New England's Tom Brady. 

The match also saw the retirement of Veteran Bettis who is nicknamed The Bus.

"It is an ending. It has been an incredible ride. I came back to win a championship. Mission accomplished. Now I have to bid farewell. My teammates put me on their back and they wouldn't let me down. They were tremendous," he said.

Hines Ward completed the match with five catches for 123 yards. "Antwaan made a great play at the right time," he said, referring to a fantastic pass. 

This is the first time that a team has come from behind to wipe off a 10-point deficit to win Super Bowl. This is also the first time in 12 years that a team trailing at half-time came back to win Super Bowl.

On Sunday, the match swung both sides in the third quarter

Parker gave the lead to Steelers with a 75-yard race, 22 seconds into the second half.

The eventful second half also saw Seattle's Josh Brown missing a 50-yard field goal.

A throw by Roethlisberger was intercepted by Seattle's Kelly Herndon, who got into the Steeler’s 20-yard with a runback stretching 78 yards. This is considered the longest interception runback in Super Bowl history.

In the third quarter, Matt Hasselbeck had a run with Jerramy Stevens to pull Seattle within 14-10.

Seattle coach Mike Holmgren, who has coached and won the title for Green Bay's in 1997, failed to become the first coach to win the title for two teams.

In Sunday’s Super Bowl, Pittsburgh also became the third team 
in Super Bowl history without a first-quarter first down.