Football concluded.

After all of the uncanny Doritos and E-surance commercials have been watched and all of the celebratory confetti fell there was only one NFL team that stood alone in the pinnacle of sports. This year, Aaron Rodgers and his dedicated teammates brought the Lombardi trophy back home to their great town of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

“It was definitely nice to see a change,” said senior Kaitlyn Conolly. “I feel like the Steelers win to much and to see the Packers win was something special.”

The Packers held the lead throughout the game, but the Steelers showed lots of hope in the second half and came back, making it a close game. The Packers’ defense, however, led by Clay Matthews, shut down the Steelers’ offense and secured the win for Mike McCarthy’s scrappy squad.

“It was disappointing to see them lose,” said senior and Steelers fan Joey Stynchula, “but I’m still proud to be a part of Steeler nation, because they had a great season, and are still AFC champions.”

One aspect of the game that may have been missed by most of the Spartan community was the punter of the Steelers, Jeremy Kapinos.

To many, Kapinos is just another punter in the NFL; to the few who know him well enough, however, he was the punter for our very own WS Spartans just a decade ago.

Although he came up on the losing side of the game, Kapinos still got to hold his head high for a few reasons: he is still an AFC champion, he got to play in the Super Bowl, and he made all of the Spartan community proud by representing northern Virginia.

Despite departures from the Jets, Packers and Colts, Kapinos found his home in Pittsburgh and has truly thrived in that environment of success.

“I thought it was really cool to see him on the big stage like that,” said Stynchula.

Among all of the comedic commercials, the Tron-like space suits of the Black Eyed Peas, Will.i.am’s silver plated helmet, Usher’s intense 7 foot jump into a split, along with all of the great football action that happened, Super Bowl XLV was definitely one that did not disappoint.

Barring that there will be no holdout in the NFL next year, the promise that this year’s final game displayed will surely leave fans to be excited for years to come.