A resolution congratulating the Pittsburgh Steelers for their victory in Super Bowl XL.

Mr. President, it is an honor for me to be here today to speak on behalf of a great organization and a great group of men who accomplished the heights of their profession. The Pittsburgh Steelers were victorious in Super Bowl XL on Sunday. As I speak right now, there is a parade going through downtown Pittsburgh of our warriors, our champions who have brought back the Super Bowl trophy, the Lombardi trophy, to Pittsburgh for the fifth time, which ties a record with the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys, having won five Super Bowls.

During the 1970s, we won four and got comfortable with the fact that Pittsburgh was a city of champions, winning both football titles and two World Series titles in 1972 and 1979; and in 1979 we won both the Super Bowl and the World Series. It has been a long time--26 years-- since we were able to get, as the saying goes in Pittsburgh, ``one for the thumb.'' We didn't yet have the one for the thumb. But the time for the one for the thumb has come. We have, in fact, gotten over the hump, and we have a lot more to look forward to, in my view, in the years to come with this great squad.

I congratulate, obviously, the team. I also congratulate some other folks who I think deserve particular recognition--and, by the way, Senator Specter and I have put forth a congratulatory resolution, which we brought down to the floor and I am sure will be cleared and we will be able to get that passed today.

I congratulate the Rooney family. This is a family enterprise that has been, since 1933, running the Steelers. I don't know of any other team in the NFL that has had the kind of stable ownership and closeness with the community that the Rooney ownership has brought over the past 73 years. They are a great Pittsburgh family. Art Rooney, who bought the team back in 1933, was one of the founders of the NFL. For years and years and years, he was one of the great men of football but never won a championship for over 40 years being in the league, and then they had a great run in the 1970s.

After his passing, Dan, his son, took it over, and has been a tremendous pillar of the Pittsburgh community. This is a man who is as humble as any man I have ever met. In contrast with some of the high- flying owners of the NFL, this is a man who still flies around in a little single-engine plane. They have a training camp well out of town, so instead of having to drive from his home, he takes this little plane and flies out to the airport near St. Vincent College. He still remembers his roots and does so much for the community. One of the things he does most for the community is he keeps the beloved Steelers a local community team, a team that is good to its players and good to the community and puts the community first. That is one of the reasons the Steelers are so beloved in Pittsburgh--because they are so much a fabric in the city because they participate in community organizations, and their players have great relationships throughout the Pittsburgh area and make a difference in the community. That is really what professional sports should be more about.

We have true role models in people like Jerome Bettis who have added so much to the texture of Pittsburgh. Over the years, we have had many great players in and out, and because of the leadership of the Rooney family and the stability of the coaching ranks, from Chuck Knoll to Bill Cowher, we have seen that stability, that bond with the city that has been transferred to the players. They feel that special relationship and obligation to be role models in the community. Overwhelmingly, they have lived up to that.

So it is a very proud moment, not only because they won a football game--in fact, they won four improbable games against worthy opponents--they were a team that barely made the playoffs, but they went through and not only got to a championship game and won the AFC championship, they then won the Super Bowl. They are truly a remarkable team, inspired by this great family, the Rooney family, and a great coach, Bill Cowher, who has been, again, another important piece of the Pittsburgh family now for better than a dozen years. He continues to show that a hometown boy can come back, somebody who wasn't a star in the league but a solid guy from Pittsburgh who understands the importance of the Steelers to the community and lives by that ethic and the code the Rooneys have established very well and makes Pittsburgh a better place as a result.

It is great to see Coach Cowher get a Super Bowl, it is great to see the team back on top, and it is great to see Pittsburgh, a town that has gone through a lot in the steel industry in the 1970s--they have seen pretty dark times in the 1980s in particular as a community. We have been going through a renaissance in Pittsburgh in the last 10, 12 years, a tremendous transformation of that city. It is nice to see that the Steelers put a punctuation mark which, hopefully, draws some attention and makes us feel better about ourselves because not only have we made the transformation, but we have a winning team and a good, positive attitude about how we go forward.

So I am proud to be a Pittsburgher, and I am proud particularly to be a Pittsburgh Steeler fan today. I congratulate the entire organization and all of the people in Pittsburgh for the tremendous support you continue to give the Steelers and the great attitude you bring to our fair city.

Mr. President, I rise to compliment the Pittsburgh Steelers on a phenomenal season and a great Super Bowl victory. I regret I could not go to Detroit to see the game. But a session had been scheduled many weeks ago to bring in Attorney General Gonzales on the electronic surveillance issue at 9:30 yesterday morning. I checked it out, and the earliest I could have gotten back to Washington would have been the middle of the night. I thought it more sensible to attend to those important duties for the hearing with the Attorney General and to watch the game on television.

I was very heartened to see that game, to see that 75-yard run, the longest in Super Bowl history, to see that phenomenal catch, practically a ``hail Mary,'' on the 3-yard line, to see the young quarterback Ben Roethlisberger carry it over on the replay and the great dispute about whether there was a touchdown, and it was a touchdown. The earlier touchdown was nullified when a Seattle receiver had pushed off and been called with an infraction. And then when the Steelers were driving at 14 to 3 toward a putaway touchdown, the intercepted pass and long runback, and the Seahawks came within 14 to 10. Then the Seahawks mounted a drive and were closing in on a touchdown which would have put them ahead 17 to 14, and then came the Steelers' interception. So, it was phenomenal and thrilling game. To have the Steelers, from a wild-card position, go on the

road and beat Cincinnati and then go on the road and beat Denver and Indianapolis and that phenomenal tackle made by Roethlisberger, which may be as important in Steelers' lore as the ``immaculate reception'' by Franco Harris many years ago--as you can tell, I am a diehard football fan.

The Steelers have brought great credit to Pennsylvania with their victory, great credit to America with their sportsmanship and accomplishments.

A special tribute to the Rooney family which owns the Pittsburgh Steelers. I had the privilege of knowing Mr. Art Rooney, who bought the Steelers in about 1933 for reputedly $2,500. I have had occasion to work with his son Dan Rooney, who is now the family patriarch, and his grandson Art Rooney. They are a wonderful family.

Bill Cowher is the coach. I know him, to some extent. It is a great tribute.

I have taken these few moments to comment about the great victory and to offer congratulations. I am sorry that I couldn't be in Pittsburgh today to attend the parade. But we have a parade on the Senate floor which takes my attention. I don't think I will be missed in that crowd.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to consideration of S. Res. 367 submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.