By By STEVE FRANKLIN, Sports Writer
Dick Culbertson sat on the couch at his home in Cypress Landing Sunday and watched the Super Bowl in anguish.
As Kurt Warner drove the Arizona Cardinals down the field in the final five minutes of Super Bowl XLIII, the former Pittsburgh Steeler and current Chocowinity resident began to cringe.
Culbertson’s lowest point came when Warner connected with Larry Fitzgerald on a 64-yard scoring strike with 2:37 to play, helping the Cardinals erase a 13-point fourth quarter deficit and giving them a 23-20 lead.
But much to Culbertson’s delight, Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger responded, leading the Steelers 88 yards down the field using a two-minute offense. When Roethlisberger connected with Santonio Holmes in the back of the end zone with 35 seconds remaining, giving the Steelers their NFL record sixth Super Bowl title, Culbertson celebrated frantically.
Culbertson, who played 14 games at defensive end for Pittsburgh in the 1964 and 1965 seasons, was thrilled to see Pittsburgh get their sixth title.
Culbertson grew up in Pittsburgh, but it wasn’t always his boyhood dream to play for the Steelers.
As he recalls, the Steelers were one of the worst teams in football back in his heyday.