Bordow: Another title slips through our hands

TAMPA, Fla. - Not again. This couldn't have happened again. Sports can't be that cruel. We suffered those final 100 seconds in the 1997 Rose Bowl, when Ohio State snatched a national championship from Arizona State.

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We agonized when John Paxson's 3-pointer fell through the net in the 1993 NBA Finals, breaking our heart so completely we thought we'd never get over it.

And now this.

Pittsburgh 27, Arizona 23.

It's just not fair.

It's just not right.

It's not that the Cardinals deserved a championship. That's not how it works. But for one moment, one magical, delirious moment, it looked like our football team would do the impossible and bring the Lombardi Trophy back to the Valley.

Instead, they're returning with a lifetime of regret.

"Being so close, just to have it snatched away, it hurts," wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. "I just feel empty right now. It's kind of like all for nothing."

Eventually, the Cardinals will look back and appreciate everything they accomplished this season. They made fools out of all their doubters and buried their reputation as the NFL's punching bag.

But that won't ease the pain. Not today, not tomorrow, not 20 years from now. A Super Bowl loss bounces around the gut forever.

"You can't even describe the feeling of hurt and pain that you see in the players' eyes," cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie said ... "It's just going to be hard to go back home and smile."

Don't for a second believe that tired adage about a loss is a loss is a loss. Ask Dan Majerle if Paxson's shot didn't hurt worse than a four-game sweep. Ask Jake Plummer what it felt like to watch helplessly as the Buckeyes marched for the game-winning touchdown.

The Cardinals had the game won. To have it slip away in the final 157 seconds is unbearable.

"Your emotions are so high with two minutes left in the game when you have the lead," quarterback Kurt Warner said. "You know that you are two minutes away from being world champions."

Even in defeat, Arizona won a legion of admirers. The Steelers delivered shot after shot and they couldn't put the Cardinals away.

Be honest. How many of you thought it was over when Pittsburgh jumped out to a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter? How certain were you that defeat was inevitable when Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison intercepted Warner's pass on the final play of the first half and ran 100 yards for a touchdown, turning a potential 14-10 lead into a 17-7 halftime deficit?

No team could recover from that kind of emotional haymaker.

But the Cardinals have been one stubborn bunch this season. They were counted out before the year began. They were given no chance when they lost four of their final six regular-season games. They were called the worst team ever to make the playoffs.

But here they were, in the Super Bowl. So there was no way they were going to let one play, even a play so big it immediately inherited a nickname - the Immaculate Interception - determine their fate.

"The road for us to get here, man, it was tough," defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said. "There isn't anybody in a million years that thought we would get here. We fought our way in. We fought our way back in the game."

And then, in a crazy fourth quarter that will go down in Super Bowl lore, the Cardinals got up off the canvas and delivered a few punches of their own. Warner started finding Fitzgerald, and the Steelers' lead was down to six and then four, and when Fitzgerald scored on a 64-yard pass with 2:37 left, well, the impossible dream seemed so real you could touch it.

"We thought we were going to be world champs," linebacker Karlos Dansby said.

But the script never seems to have a happy ending, does it? Santonio Holmes turns into Paxson - couldn't one toe have been out of bounds? - and the Valley is in mourning, red flags giving way to dark thoughts.

"It's like getting a chair pulled out from under you," Fitzgerald said. "It just hurts to be able to get so close and fall short of your ultimate goal."

Sixteen years ago, Arizona threw a parade for the Suns even while the Chicago Bulls were celebrating their NBA title.

The Cardinals deserve our applause and appreciation, too. They carried us on a journey we could never imagine.

But it's hard to feel good today. It's hard to think about the wins and the comebacks, Fitzgerald's acrobatics and Dockett's passion.

A championship was lost.

Again.