Citizen Staff Writer
SUPER BOWL XLIII
David L. Teibel
dteibel@tucsoncitizen.com
Football fans from Tucson and as far away as Brazil gathered at
O’Malleys On Fourth on Sunday to drink beer and watch the Arizona
Cardinals play the Pittsburgh Steelers in a quest for the Cardinals’
first Super Bowl title.
The crowd of 80 or so fans was subdued as the Cardinals trailed the Steelers for most of the game.
But when the Cardinals pulled ahead late in the fourth quarter, fans at the North Fourth Avenue bar erupted in cheers.
There was hope – although it didn’t last long. The Steelers scored
what proved to be the winning touchdown with 35 seconds left in the
game.
“It was a great game, but unfortunately they couldn’t pull it off,” said Ricardo Garcia, 52.
Garcia, a Nogales, Ariz., resident, brought his 9-year-old son Diego
to Tucson on Sunday for a day of shopping and football watching.
Garcia said he was disappointed, but he wasn’t sure just how much.
“I’ll see tomorrow (Monday), once it sinks in,” Garcia said.
Diego said he was disappointed “a lot.”
After the Cardinals’ defeat, Paulo Queiroga, a 32-year-old software
engineer from Brazil, said, “If they had played (the whole game) the
way they had in the fourth quarter, they would win. They were almost
there.”
Queiroga said he wasn’t too optimistic as the game entered the fourth quarter with the Cardinals trailing 20-7.
“Nope. I was hoping, but nope,” Queiroga said.
But the Cardinals scored 16 points in the quarter and were on the verge of the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.
For Colin Fawcett, the outcome was just what he wanted.
The 21-year-old business and anthropology student at Pima Community College said he was rooting for a Steelers victory.
“The Cardinals are really shooting themselves in the foot with all
the penalties they’re getting. They’ve had over 100 yards in
penalties,” Fawcett said as the fourth quarter began.
He was not the only Steelers fan in Cardinals-friendly O’Malleys.
“I think it’s awesome,” Wyoming resident Rob Tynsky, 31, said of the Steelers’ victory.