Super Bowl TV ratings down from last year

Preliminary Nielsen Media Research ratings show the Super Bowl's audience was likely down from last year's peak, but about on par with the 2007 and 2006 games, according to an Associated Press story.

The Pittsburgh-Arizona game on NBC recorded a 42.1 rating and 65 share in Nielsen's overnight measurement of the nation's top cities. The same measurement for last year's New York Giants-New England Patriots game, which was the most-watched Super Bowl ever, was 44.7.

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John Elway: 'Great football game.'

John Elway -- a man who knows a thing or two about wild fourth quarters -- wouldn't go so far as to say this was the best game he's ever seen in person. But he did say the Steelers' heartstopping win over the Cardinals was "good for the NFL."

"It was a great game. Great football game, and obviously some very big plays. Every big football game, five plays make the difference, and those five plays dictated the outcome tonight."

Jesse Jackson: 'This was a super game'

The Rev. Jesse Jackson sat in the stands for Super Bowl XLIII. Here's what he had to say in the concourse after the game:

"Most Super Bowls are not super games. This was a super game. This matched the hype. A lot of the great games you saw when X-team beat Y-team, it was the Super Bowl, but the game was not super. This was a super game. And in many ways, the players are all winners. One team ended up with more points, but these were champions. And no one was injured. No injuries, nothing ugly. This was a beautiful weekend in Tampa. And it's a beautiful season. You had the King holiday, the inauguration, the Super Bowl. This is one of America's great, shining moments."

Relative unknowns get game's first two TDs

If you had Gary Russell and Ben Patrick as scoring the game's first two touchdowns in your office pool, well, you knew something the rest of us didn't.

The first two touchdowns in Sunday's Super Bowl were scored by relative unknowns who had combined for less than 200 yards of total offense this season. Both are second-year pros -- the Steelers' Russell has actually scored three touchdowns in his last four games, but he totaled just 77 yards of offense this season, working primarily as a short-yardage back.

Patrick, the Cards' tight end from Delaware, hadn't caught a touchdown all season until he pulled in a 1-yard lob from Kurt Warner in the second quarter. He caught two scores as a rookie last year, but had just 11 catches for 104 yards this season before the big grab against Pittsburgh.

Midway through the second quarter, Pittsburgh is holding onto a 10-7 lead on Arizona ...

-- Greg Auman, Times staff writer