TAMPA -- Talk Ben Roethlisberger. Talk Santonio Holmes. They teamed on a last-minute, mob-surrounded pass that enabled Pittsburgh to beat Arizona 27-23. But you will never talk enough, or hear enough, about the James Harrison masterpiece that turned into the greatest play in one of the greatest games in 43 Super Bowls.

No Super Bowl ever saw the equal of Harrison's interception and 100-yard touchdown runback just before halftime. It catapulted the Steelers into a 17-7 intermission lead. In the end, Pittsburgh could not have won without what Harrison did.

Among the most spectacular aspects was that Harrison's classic did not break the spirit nor dampen the passing touch of Kurt Warner, the Cardinals quarterback who finally lost after a comeback to gladden the heart of every 37-year-old alive.

As for Harrison, he is 30 years old. He stands 6 feet and weighs 240 pounds, neither an imposing vital statistic for a right outside linebacker in this age of football monsters. No team in the National Football League thought enough of his prospects to draft him when he finished up at Kent State five years ago.

Today is a little different.

I've seen, up close, every play of every Super Bowl. Just good luck, but it at least provides a frame of reference. And the idea here is that no other play in any Super Bowl could even come close to Harrison's for combined brilliance and impact.

If Harrison hadn't dropped back into coverage and stolen Warner's pass at that precise moment, the Cardinals would have had time for Neil Rackers to kick a short field goal that would have created a 10-10 halftime tie and brought the Cards out boiling to receive the second-half kickoff.

The Steelers collided with enough problems without having to face that.

Think back upon what Harrison did, and all it involved.

There stood Warner with 18 seconds left in the second quarter. Just as he launched the ball toward Anquan Boldin, Harrison dropped back into coverage and snatched the ball.

SPECTACULAR TIMING

The interception's timing alone was spectacular. But then he cut in front of a couple of dazed Cardinals and started reeling off some industrial-strength moves.

By the time Harrison reached his own 20, it was devastatingly obvious he wasn't about to settle for just a tad of history. He was going for it all.

He was making moves that linebackers usually only see from the wrong side. Harrison isn't particularly fast, but he didn't win NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors by accident. Still, his specialties are sacking and causing and recovering fumbles, not running 100 glittering yards in a game being televised and broadcast by radio to more than 150 countries.

So a lot of folks were taken aback when he started making like Devin Hester or some other Super Bowl hero.

All right, these guys, not even Harrison, are not true heroes in the more serious context of life. They are mercenaries, well-paid mercenaries, but mercenaries all the same.

For all the Steelers' seeming genius in talent-picking, they could not possibly have dreamed what they were getting in Harrison. He chiefly seemed to be bringing an oversized chip on his shoulder that he had since refined, if you will, into a league-wide reputation as an intimidator. Hence, all those sacks and forced fumbles.

But now, in the bedlam only a Super Bowl can produce, he was going places with ball under arm, racing through golden instants of fame that not even Bobby Hayes, ''The World's Fastest Human,'' Olympic sprint champion and Dallas Cowboys dazzler who was elected right here only Saturday to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, ever achieved.

STAGGERING ALONG

Harrison was beginning to show some justifiable fascination with his own footwork by the time he crossed midfield.

He started to stagger a little as he moved on downfield. But fellow Steelers were knocking desperate Cardinals aside as Harrison struggled on. He fell into the end zone in a tumble that inspired Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt to call for a challenge -- subsequently denied, of course.

Then, just when you thought the Cardinals would lie down and die, they got up and swung back, only to be decked for good -- at long, long last -- by Roethlisberger's 6-yard touchdown pass to Holmes.

If Warner's superb comeback performance could not match the Harrison act, it was nonetheless a magnificent show of heart. But this game will forever be remembered for James Harrison, because there never has been anything remotely like what he did for shock and impact in more than four decades of Super Bowls.

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