Only a few days earlier, Santonio Holmes had opened up candidly about his youthful days dealing drugs on a street corner in the hardscrabble town of Belle Glade, Fla., about 200 miles away from Raymond James Stadium.

Holmes' stated reasoning for coming clean with the information, in his words, was to demonstrate on a national stage, to young people especially, that there is hope for the seemingly hopeless, and that things can change with focus and resolve.

The Pittsburgh Steelers receiver and his teammates then went out and proved it Sunday with a thrilling 78-yard, game-winning drive.

Holmes, tiptoeing for the touchdown, then wasn't using the NFL's biggest stage as a platform; rather, he was standing on one - celebrating as the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XLIII.

Late in the game, the Steelers seemed to be going nowhere, just as Holmes once had. Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald's seemingly crushing 64- yard TD reception had given Pittsburgh only two minutes, 37 seconds left and a three-point deficit.

But Holmes caught four passes on his team's final drive.

He caught a 13-yarder on third- and-6. He found a hole in zone coverage for a game-altering 40-yard reception to Arizona's 6-yard line, preceding the Steelers' final timeout with 49 seconds remaining.

And with three defenders surrounding him, Holmes stretched out in the back of the end zone, got both hands on the ball and pirouetted before falling out of bounds with a 6- yard score with only 35 ticks left, giving the Steelers a 27-23 victory for their unprecedented sixth Super Bowl title.

Before the drive, Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger turned to his offensive group and had a simple message: "I said, 'It's now or never. . . . ' "

And Holmes had a ready response for the man delivering the ball.

"I said to him I wanted to be the guy to make the plays for this team."

Holmes has been doing that this entire postseason.

He had a 67-yard punt return for a score against the San Diego Chargers in the divisional round Jan. 11. Holmes had a 65-yard, catch and run on a broken play against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game. And while those plays made headlines, so, too, did Holmes late last week with his off-the-field story, which he conceded he'd previously told to only a few people.

He used his drug money on gifts mainly for himself but was forced to move when bullet holes riddled his apartment and his mother found cocaine in one of his toys. Holmes ended up moving and turning his life around.

As he said last week, "When you're involved in drugs, you wind up in one of two places - either in a casket six feet underground or in jail."

Instead, he went to Ohio State and turned himself into a first-round draft pick, developing his quickness by chasing rabbits, catching from 40 to 80 per day and selling them for $5 each.

On Sunday, he was the one being chased.

"He just loves to deliver in big moments and big games," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said, pointing to a late-season game against the Ravens in which Holmes caught the pass that clinched the AFC North. "What he did is similar to what he's done for us in the month of January to get us to this game. . . . In big moments, we know what we can get for him and we appreciate it."

On the play before Holmes' touchdown that sealed the MVP, Cardinals cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie bit on a Roethlisber- ger pump fake and jumped an underneath route. Holmes made the catch, and with safety Aaron Francisco falling to the turf, sprinted to the 6.

No longer was a tying field goal the point of emphasis.

Holmes' scoring catch was a masterful job of ball control and foot placement, and the throw in the back corner of the end zone could only land in his hands, or fall harmlessly to the ground, where Cardinals defenders Rodgers-Cromartie, Francisco and cornerback Ralph Brown could just watch.

"My feet never left the ground," Holmes said. "All I did was extend my arms and use my toes as extra extension to catch up to the ball."

The play capped an eventful season for the Steelers receiver. He was deactivated for an Oct. 26 game against the New York Giants after he was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

His regular-season numbers weren't spectacular - 55 receptions for 821 yards and five TDs - but his nine catches for 131 yards stole the MVP trophy from Fitzgerald (seven catches, 127 yards, two TDs) and first-ever title from the Cardinals (12-8).

"The sky's the limit for that guy," Roethlisberger said of Holmes. "He has the potential to go where no other receiver has gone. And this is a big confidence boost for him."

"Santonio Holmes really made a name for himself," teammate Hines Ward added.

And for all the right reasons this time around.

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