One Really Sick Performance

HE WAS FLAT ON HIS BACK, SHAKEN up and shivering on a frigid winter's evening, and he began to fear he was losing the battle. Tom Brady, the New England Patriots' clutch quarterback, was laid out in room 304 of the Four Points Sheraton in Pittsburgh the night before the AFC Championship Game, his throat sore and his temperature at 103�. He had an IV in his left arm and a past disappointment on his mind. A showdown with the Steelers awaited the Pats in 24 hours, and as miserable as he felt, Brady intended to win it.

I'm definitely playing, he thought. There's no way I'm missing this.

Three years earlier, after having burst onto the scene as a fantastic fill-in for the injured Drew Bledsoe, Brady had suffered an ankle sprain in the second quarter of the AFC title game and had to sit out the rest of New England's upset of Pittsburgh at Heinz Field. This time, even though he would have to spend much of game day underneath the sheets, Brady was determined to rise and deliver. And he did, in typical fashion, shredding the league's top-ranked defense and guiding the defending champion Pats to a 41--27 victory at Heinz. Their next stop would be Jacksonville for a Feb. 6 meeting with the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.

"What can you say about him? He's amazing," New England linebacker Ted Johnson said of Brady after the game. "He's a winner with such poise and calmness, he almost makes it look effortless."

Brady completed 14 of 21 passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns, but as usual, numbers don't begin to do justice to his performance, which took place in 11� cold with a windchill of --1. If his grace, poise and smoothness must be quantified, then consider this combination: age (27), career postseason record (8--0) and typical tally of turnovers in big games (zero). Super Bowl fever--catch it.

Brady, who had won 30 of his last 32 games going into the AFC title game, has suffered few setbacks on his journey to greatness, but the Steelers loomed as a serious obstacle. Pittsburgh, on its way to a league-best 15--1 regular-season record, had ended New England's NFL-record 21-game winning streak on Oct. 31 with a 34--20 blowout at Heinz during which the Steelers bullied the Pats on both sides of the ball. In addition to hounding Brady into a pair of interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, Pittsburgh ran the ball at will against New England's normally sturdy front seven, rolling up 221 yards.

Heading into the hotly anticipated rematch, the Steelers were confident that they could repeat the beating. "We're going to pound the s--- out of them," running back Jerome (the Bus) Bettis predicted. "Everyone is wondering how we're going to stop them, but how are they going to stop us?" Though impressed by the Patriots' stuffing of the league's top-ranked passing offense in a 20--3 divisional-round victory over the Indianapolis Colts, Joey Porter, Pittsburgh's Pro Bowl outside linebacker, scoffed, "They're not made for overpowering a team like us. That's the difference between us and Indy--we won't be scared."

The Steelers flinched first in the AFC Championship. Pats free safety Eugene Wilson collected the first of two interceptions less than a minute and a half into the game. The errant throw by rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (who would go 14 of 24 for 226 yards with three interceptions) gave New England the ball at the Pittsburgh 48 and set up Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal.

Trailing 3--0, Big Ben--an astounding 14--0 as a starter coming into the game--quickly steered the Steelers back into Patriots territory. Facing fourth-and-one from the 39, Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher set up the mano-a-mano clash both teams had craved. "That's so Cowher to go for it," New England linebacker Tedy Bruschi said admiringly. "It gave us a chance to do what we do best and go against what they do best." Not surprisingly, Patriots strong safety Rodney (Don't Call Me Dangerfield) Harrison viewed Cowher's aggressive decision "as a sign of disrespect." Harrison, who searches for slights the way CSI's Gil Grissom hunts down criminals, said, "That was a gutsy call. It was saying, 'We're more physical than you are. We're tougher than you are. And we will get that one yard because we want to.'"

From New England's perspective it was time for an unscheduled Bus stop. Running behind the strength of the Steelers' line, left guard Alan Faneca and center Jeff Hartings, Bettis threw his 258 pounds toward the line of scrimmage. Defensive linemen Keith Traylor and Jarvis Green held firm, and inside linebacker Ted Johnson rushed up to stymie Bettis's second effort. Rosevelt Colvin swooped in from the side to strip the football, and fellow outside linebacker Mike Vrabel recovered it--though the Bus wouldn't have picked up the first down even if he hadn't fumbled.